Micro Focus Celebrates COBOL’s 60th Anniversary and its Enduring Value with COBOL60

Micro Focus has commenced its COBOL60 activities, celebrating the continued relevance of information technology’s most enduring business language. Known for its innovation, portability, readability and business-centricity, COBOL has continually expanded and adapted to support new technologies and business demands.

Created in 1959 as a U.S Department of Defense project to assist data processing, the revolutionary language was built to last through the expert design work of Grace Hopper, Jean Sammet, and others. Since starting with the development of a COBOL compiler in 1976, Micro Focus has spearheaded the evolution and innovation of the language and the contemporary technology that supports it.

“Our current digital economy is changing rapidly and while core business processing remains critically at the heart of that change, COBOL is fully equipped to meet today’s and tomorrow’s business needs,” said Chris Livesey, Senior Vice President, Application Modernization and Connectivity at Micro Focus. “Modernizing trusted COBOL systems is a proven path to success, which is why COBOL is and will remain to be the bedrock of digital transformation.”

Today, Micro Focus offers products for those learning, maintaining and building upon core COBOL applications. Micro Focus continues to invest millions each year in mainframe and distributed COBOL application analyzer products, as well as modern IDE-based mainframe and distributed COBOL application development products (Visual COBOL and Enterprise Developer) and server deployment products.

“Evolving to support a wide range of contemporary digital technologies, COBOL applications are continuing to be enhanced and extended, yet the language remains readable enough for anyone to learn and maintain it,” said Derek Britton, Global Director of Product Marketing, Application Modernization and Connectivity at Micro Focus. “COBOL continues to modernize - it is a language that was designed to stand the test of time, with six decades of heritage, billions of lines of value and scores of practitioners using it to this very day.”

As part of Micro Focus’ COBOL60 activities, the following resources are available:

The Micro Focus white paper “COBOL at 60: A Living Legend”
The Micro Focus COBOL eBook hosted by IBM Systems Magazine
The Micro Focus webinar “COBOL- Here’s to the Next 60 Years”
Micro Focus’ COBOL Academic Program
The Micro Focus #DevDay event on September 19, 2019, New York City
The Micro Focus Application Modernization and Connectivity products and solutions

SSAB Tops CDP’s List Assessing Business Readiness in Fossil-Free Steel Production

SSAB, the global steel company, is taking steps to gradually eliminate its carbon emissions and achieve the goal of fossil-free steel production by 2045. Recognising these efforts of the company, CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Company) in its recent analysis has ranked SSAB first amongst steel companies business ready for a low-carbon operations.

The report analysed 20 of the world’s biggest listed steel companies, which in aggregate represent 30% of global steel production. SSAB had ranked second in the CDP report, when last analysed in 2016.

SSAB has presence in India since a decade with its flagship brands of Hardox wear plate and Strenx performance steel. The company has helped customers use these high-strength steels to reduce the weight of their equipment, improve fuel economy and extend product lifetime – factors that have a major impact on reducing their carbon footprint. These steels are used by a wide variety of heavy equipment types, such as dumper bodies, buckets, trailers, and equipment for lifting, transportation, recycling and agriculture.

The CDP report shines a spotlight on SSAB’s HYBRIT initiative and plans to achieve fossil-free steel production by closure of blast furnaces and their replacement with electric arc ones.

It further states that SSAB has the most ambitious emissions targets among steel companies, ranks it high when it comes to managing risks arising from the switchover and applauds it for being one of the most carbon dioxide-efficient production systems in the steel industry.

Speaking about the achievement, Mr Sergio Moyano, SSAB director for Turkey, Middle East and India said, “The global steel industry accounts for 7- 9% of greenhouse gas emissions and to align with the Paris Agreement's long-term goal to keep the rising global average temperature below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, the sector will be required to reduce its emissions to 65% of 2014 levels by 2050. We at SSAB have always worked towards sustainable solutions for our customers and environment. Initiatives such as HYBRIT and sensitising customers to upgrade towards a better quality steel is part of the same thought process. We thank CDP for acknowledging our commitment towards carbon free operations.”

Other than steel, CDP’s sector research series takes an in-depth look at high impact industries such as automotive, electric utilities, chemicals, mining, cement, oil & gas, capital goods, consumer goods, shipping etc.

KisanKraft Conducts Aerobic Rice Demo for Kanakapura Farmers

KisanKraft an ISO 9001:2015 certified manufacturer, wholesale importer & distributor of high quality agricultural equipment conducted an Aerobic Rice demonstration for farmers in Kanakapura, Ramanagara district, Karnataka. The demonstration was conducted by Mr. Sumantha Holla and Mr. Raghavendra in order to educate farmers on the process of cultivating Aerobic Rice.

The advantages of Aerobic rice is that it uses 50% less water than that required for paddy cultivation and reduces the amount of fertilizer, pesticides, labor costs and greenhouse gas emissions. As against 5,000 litres of water required to produce one kg of conventional rice, the aerobic rice requires between 2,000-2,500 litres.  This crop could also be grown in low rainfall areas.

Aerobic rice is dry direct seeded in well aerated fields.  The fields need not be puddled. Inter or mixed cropping with pulses, vegetables, and oilseeds is also possible.  In the long run, this improves the soil health.

Speaking at the demonstration, Mr. Sumanth said, “Rice cultivation and production is a huge contributor to the economy of India. Various problems and issues such as water scarcity and the lack of knowledge can have a serious impact on the production of this crop, which can negatively impact the growth of our economy. To combat the growing issues against the rice crop, we at KisanKraft have developed a new strain of Aerobic Rice which consumes more the 50% less water with the same outputs.“

Raghavendra Said “Using Aerobic Rice, farmers can yield 55 quintals of paddy per ha or more depending on the fertility of the soil. Without any change in the taste as compared to traditional rice varieties, this paddy can be sown directly resulting in an increase in profitability of paddy cultivation as it brings down the expenses of cultivation significantly.”

A significant advantage of cultivating Aerobic Rice that it does not need nursery, puddling, leveling and transplanting. It is also very eco-friendly as it produces less methane emission while being a cost effective crop as it gives lesser incidence of pests and diseases.

SDG Corporation and RSA Announce Strategic Partnership Across India

RSA Security and SDG Corporation are proud to announce their strategic partnership for fraud and risk intelligence solutions and services across India. Cyber fraud teams around the world speak in volumes about the frequent occurrences of account takeovers, fraudulent money transfers and sophisticated business logic abuses that result in massive financial and brand losses. RSA’s top-of-the-line fraud management products and SDG’s two decades of experience in delivering cyber security solutions and services make this partnership a great asset for the companies’ global customers.

By strategically working together, both SDG and RSA can address the ever-increasing needs of online fraud detection and prevention solutions and services. The partnership and the newly launched Fraud and Risk Intelligence practice will allow SDG to provide advisory, implementation and managed services, as well as take RSA fraud and risk intelligence solutions to existing & new customers. In the war against evolving cybercrime with actionable intelligence, SDG and RSA will empower customers to respond to digital fraud attacks in real time.

“We are in an era of hyper-digital transformation, and the risk of zero-day fraud exists in all channels. It is extremely important for enterprises to protect online transactions and stay one step ahead of fraudsters’ attempts to exploit vulnerabilities.” says Ajay Gupta, President & CEO of SDG Corporation. “We are extremely excited about our strategic partnership with RSA. It enables us to offer end-to-end cross channel risk-based fraud management solutions to secure users’ online experiences.”

“With rapid penetration of digital deeper into business operations, the line between cyber security and risk management has blurred. RSA’s business-driven security solutions provide a unified approach to managing digital risk that hinges on integrated visibility, automated insights and coordinated actions helping customers create capabilities necessary to achieve the required digital risk management maturity,” said Rajnish Gupta, Regional Director, India & SAARC, RSA, A Dell Technologies Company. “We are thrilled to partner with SDG to give organizations transforming their digital, multi-channel strategy the ability to protect consumers against fraud while improving the user experience and reducing transaction friction.”

SBI General Insurance Announces Bancassurance Tie up with “Karnataka Gramin Bank”

SBI General Insurance, one of India’s leading general insurance companies, has entered into a comprehensive bancassurance deal with Karnataka Gramin Bank to provide the bank customers with a bouquet of general insurance products.

With this partnership, SBI General Insurance has extended its distribution channels in the southern market and will distribute its insurance products across all the branches of Karnataka Gramin Bank. The extensive local presence of the bank will be an added advantage for the insurance company.

Speaking on this alliance, Mr. Pushan Mahapatra, MD & CEO, SBI General Insurance, “We are pleased to announce the tie-up with such a prestigious bank in the state of Karnataka. The bancassurance channel has potential to reach out to the last mile and serve untapped markets thereby promoting the insurance penetration in India. At SBI General insurance, we strive to reach out to the furthest part of the society and spread awareness on insurance, and this partnership is in line with our objective. This association will leverage the strengths of both the companies, bringing Karnataka Gramin Bank’s customers a comprehensive suite of general Insurance products.”

Karnataka Gramin Bank is the biggest RRB of India having presence in 21 districts of Karnataka with 1167 branches. The bank has a business turnover of 46500 cr and is servicing 1.58 cr customers across Karnataka. The deal will benefit the bank’s retail and SME customers spread across rural, semi urban and urban areas of Karnataka state.

Cyient and QinetiQ Sign MoU to Offer Avionics Products for Unmanned Target Systems in India

Cyient, a global engineering and technology solutions company, today announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UK-based defense technology firm, QinetiQ’s Target Systems (QTS), to offer avionics products for its unmanned target systems. Cyient will provide advanced manufacturing and electronics engineering solutions for QTS’ range of unmanned air, land, and sea target systems from its facilities in India.

“The signing of this MOU with Cyient marks a significant milestone in QTS’ strategy in India. The high levels of expertise and quality within the Cyient business together with the enthusiasm and desire to succeed have impressed us from day one. Initial efforts are focused on the manufacture and assembly of avionics and electronics assemblies for our target systems as we grow indigenous activities beyond the manufacture and assembly of airframes, subsystems, and ground equipment already in place,” said Graham Brooks, Program Manager, India, at QinetiQ Target Systems.

“We are very excited about our collaboration with QTS, a world leader in unmanned air, land, and sea targets for live-fire training, test, and evaluation exercises. This partnership will allow us to support the “Make in India” initiative of the Government of India by building critical subsystems for QTS products out of our manufacturing facilities.  While we will initiate the collaboration with making avionics products, Cyient’s comprehensive design, build, and maintain portfolio will be leveraged for other purposes as well. We can deliver world-class aerospace engineering solutions and leverage our award-winning productivity and innovation framework to support QTS’ products in India. We see a seamless alignment between our business strategies, and this MoU is a significant milestone in our long-term partnership,” said Anand Parameswaran, Senior Vice President, Aerospace and Defense at Cyient.

World's Leading Brands Focus On Acquiring New-Age Skills

Every year on September 8, International Literacy Day is celebrated across the globe by UNESCO to acknowledge the improvements in world literacy while working on the challenges that remain. However, in an ever-evolving world that is turning more digital by every passing day, the definition of literacy needs to expand to also cover emerging yet fundamental skills that go beyond being able to read and write. Here’s what the top and emerging brands venturing into equipping young minds and professionals with emerging skills like data literacy and cybersecurity have to say on the occasion of International Literacy Day.

Ankur Goel, Managing Director, Qlik India said, "International Literacy Day is a timely reminder of the essential skills that form the foundations of education and employment. But literacy does not only apply to letters and words… with the volume of data being created today doubling every two years – it goes without saying that reading and understanding this data will become essential to all – but especially so for the younger generation who will be joining the workforce.

Young people are already almost three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and the education system as it stands is unable to adequately prepare them for this new generation of work – of those 16-24 year-olds already in the workforce, Qlik’s Global Data Literacy Report found 52% are overwhelmed by the data they must read and analyse as part of their job. Additionally, the research suggests that most (81%) full-time employees in India admit to feeling overwhelmed when reading, working with, analysing or challenging data. At Qlik, we are already working towards creating a more data empowered society through initiatives like the Data Literacy Project whose mission is to enable individuals at every stage in their data literacy journey. The portal provides at no cost - assessments, courses and even globally recognised certification, where individuals can upskill themselves. The Qlik Academic Program also works with over 150 universities in India to provide access to the Qlik Data Analytics Curriculum, which offers professors ready-to-teach, free resources – including instructor-led content, in-class activities and interactive business use cases. As the success of the digital economy lies in equipping the current and future workforce with the skills to succeed, data literacy training programs must be placed front and centre both in the education system and the workplace to boost their chances of success in a rapidly changing future world of work.”

Mr. Rakesh Kharwal, MD - India, Cyberbit says, "“Today, India is at an interesting crossroad and is brilliantly positioned to not just shape the regional discourse, but to transform the socio-economic dynamics at a global scale. With the ongoing digitization, India is rapidly adopting technological solutions and developing relevant skills. The nation has further traveled a long way in terms of cybersecurity, spreading its awareness and adoption quickly within the market. This is also a reason why avant-garde simulation training solutions such as Cyberbit Range are receiving positive traction in the country. We can clearly visualize such tools equipping our nation with the forward-looking skillsets which can eventually generate over 1 million jobs and make India emerge as the global hub of both technological solutions and talent.”