Mindtree Limited, Nordex Group Partners a Bid to Drive Digital Transformation

Mindtree Limited, an Indian multinational information technology and outsourcing company has united with wind turbine manufacturer, The Nordex Group, in a five-year deal on 23 November to simplify, modernise and transform its complete IT landscape globally. This deal will see Mindtree as The Nordex Group’s partner, providing scalability to support the company's growth plan. Mindtree has been around since 1999 while The Nordex Group dates back even farther to 1985 and since its launch, it has installed wind power capacity of more than 30 GW in more than 40 markets.

“Demand for wind power will continue to grow globally and so will Nordex. Delivering to our expanding international customer base reliably and securely will require standardisation and simplification of our underlying systems. We will design a scalable digital architecture that enables us to deliver with speed and agility,” said Stefan Ewald, CIO Nordex Group.

To align the Nordex Group’s IT infrastructure with its strategic vision across the complete value chain, Mindtree will support the full stack transformation of its current IT operations and service delivery. “The scope includes the standardisation and roll out of new projects and operational processes, the consolidation of existing IT services, and the development of a future-ready cloud platform which maintains a robust cybersecurity posture,” said Venu Lambu, President, Global Markets, Mindtree.

India's IT and Business Services Market to Reach $13 Billion by December 2020: IDC

Research firm IDC (International Data Corporation) expects India's IT & Business Services market in India will grow by 5.4 percent annually to reach US $13 billion by December 2020. The IT & Business Services market grew by 5.3 percent year-on-year in 1H 2020 (January-June 2020) as compared to the 8.9 percent growth in 1H 2019. Reduced growth is the result of the pandemic. Of the IT & Business Services market, the IT Services market contributed 77.4 percent in 1H 2020 and grew by 5.9 percent YoY in 1H 2020 compared to the 9.3 percent growth in 1H2019.

Further, as reported by IDC, the IT Services market will begin picking up momentum gradually from 2021 onwards and is projected to grow at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 7.2 percent between 2019-2024, to be valued at US $13.4 billion by the end of 2024.

"In 1H20, the role of IT Services vendors gained higher prominence, as organizations increasingly approached them to help ensure business continuity by putting in place various technologies, solutions, best practices and frameworks. During these difficult times, organizations were investing higher in collaboration applications, VPN licenses, endpoint devices, cybersecurity solutions, cloud, AI, and automation. Apart from just ensuring business continuity, the role of IT service providers have also been towards helping organizations to achieve a higher degree of tech resilience, adaptability, and DX maturity, to become future-ready." said Garima Goenka, Market Analyst, IT Services, IDC India.

"Additionally, most leading IT Service vendors have launched innovative AI-based applications to help the government and healthcare sectors to provide citizen services and answer COVID-19 related queries, and for organizations to ensure the safe and secure return of their employees to the workplace,” Goenka added.

"Enterprises strongly felt the need for advisory and support services to propel their digital journey amidst the pandemic. As a result, IT service providers witnessed a strong surge in demand for various services such as systems and network management, IT Consulting, hosting application management and hosting infrastructure services, among others. IT investments across all the major sectors such as BFSI, healthcare, telecom, IT/ITeS, government and manufacturing increased considerably to improve overall experience and maintain business continuity and resiliency," said Shweta Baidya, Senior Research Manager, Enterprise Software and ICT Services, IDC India.

"The government also relaxed some of the stringent guidelines that IT sector had to adhere to, prior to COVID-19 . The new rules provide increased flexibility with respect to work from home/ anywhere policies and has also modified some of the existing guidelines to augment the growth in the sector," added Baidya.

Jaguar Racing Unveils Jaguar I-Type 5 Race Car Ahead of New Formula E Campaign

 * Jaguar Racing reveal their new Jaguar I-TYPE 5 electric race car with state-of-the-art in-house powertrain

* Winning driver line-up of Sam Bird and Mitch Evans will push for points in season seven of the all-electric series

* Jaguar once again competes in an Official World Championship as the ABB FIA Formula E electric series will start season seven with its new status

* Leading materials science company, Dow, joins the Jaguar Racing team as an Official Partner

* The Jaguar Racing Formula E Team will be dressed in custom Polo Ralph Lauren packable quilted jackets created from recycled nylon and polyester fabrics

* Jaguar continues its Race to Innovate philosophy by testing an innovative new race seat made from TYPEFIBRE, a sustainably sourced collection of materials, developed in-house at Jaguar Land Rover

* Jaguar Racing will return to the streets of Santiago on the 16 January for the first of 14 races in 12 cities

Jaguar Racing have revealed their brand-new electric race car, the Jaguar I-TYPE 5, in a virtual launch 50 days before season seven of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

The electric single-seater features a new powertrain developed in-house, which will run for the next two seasons. Jaguar Racing engineers have focussed on efficiency gains, reduced weight and lowered the centre of gravity of the I-TYPE 5’s powertrain. New suspension will provide greater adjustment from track to track and a more efficient invertor will improve switching speeds and performance. The state-of-the-art invertor also features 24 carat gold due to its highly conductive properties.

Sam Bird and Mitch Evans – one of the strongest pairings on the Formula E grid – will drive the new race car. Evans has been with Jaguar Racing since they joined the all-electric championship in 2016. Bird, who has won races in every Formula E season, joins the British team this season.

Jaguar Racing welcomes leading materials science company, Dow, for their first ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season with the team. Dow join as an Official Partner and with over 100 years of experience in automotive, Dow brings material expertise and a pioneering spirit to the Jaguar Racing team through its MobilityScienceTM platform and its polyolefin, polyurethanes acrylic, specialty chemical and silicone technologies.

Dow join Jaguar Racing’s leading partner line-up that includes GKN Automotive, Viessmann, Castrol and Official Suppliers Alpinestars and DR1VA.

In addition, Polo Ralph Lauren and Jaguar Racing have come together to celebrate the new Jaguar I-TYPE 5 and their shared values of cutting-edge innovation and sustainability. Kicking off the racing season in style, Jaguar’s Formula E Team will be dressed in custom designed Polo Ralph Lauren packable quilted jackets bearing the Jaguar Racing logo, created from recycled nylon and polyester fabrics, as well as recycled down-alternative insulation.

Jaguar Racing is also pleased to debut at the season seven launch the use of new sustainable materials called TYPEFIBRE. The I-TYPE 5 has a new prototype race seat made from sustainably sourced TYPEFIBRE. It will be tested at speed in different temperatures, loads and environments around the world as part of the team’s Race to Innovate mission – sharing the benefits of race technology with road cars and in turn Jaguar customers.

James Barclay, Jaguar Racing Team Director: “Season seven is a very exciting year for Jaguar Racing and for Formula E. It’s the first season Formula E boasts world championship status and is Jaguar Racing’s fifth season in the world’s fastest-growing global motorsport. The team have worked harder than ever to create the most efficient, state-of-the-art race car and it is fantastic to be able to unveil it to our customers, fans and partners. This season we also welcome Sam Bird into the Jaguar Racing family and he is already settling in very well. Both Sam and Mitch are hugely motivated along with the rest of the team for the season ahead. We’d like to extend a warm welcome to our new partner Dow. The countdown is now on until we’re back out on track in Santiago and we will be pushing for points, podiums and wins.”

Sam Bird, Jaguar Racing driver, #10: “Revealing the new Jaguar I-TYPE 5 to fans today makes it feel very real that I am part of Jaguar Racing and builds excitement to get season seven under way. I think the launch is the biggest milestone away from the track action as it highlights all the hard work the team at Jaguar Racing have been doing in the off-season. Now I can’t wait to take the I-TYPE 5 out on circuit and start my first season with such an iconic British brand.”

Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing driver, #20: “Launch day is always a great landmark for the team as we show the world what we’ve been working on behind closed doors and set our intentions for the season. For me it’s a moment to set my own goals for the next season and start the year with positive momentum. This is my fifth season with the team and we are more determined than ever to make this the most successful year we’ve had together.”

Jim Fitterling, Dow Chairman and CEO: “Strong partnerships are based on shared visions and values. Our new relationship with Jaguar Racing is grounded in a common focus – delivering more sustainable solutions to the world through collaboration, innovation and inclusion. As a global materials science leader, we look forward to working together to advance vehicle electrification through our MobilityScience platform — making progress on our collective journey to a carbon neutral world.”

Jaguar Racing will return to the streets of Santiago on the 16 January for the first of 14 races in 12 cities.

Aakash Institute Announces Revised Dates for its Flagship National Scholarship Exam, ‘ANTHE 2020’

* Hundreds of deserving students will be awarded up to 100% scholarship to help them take the first step in their endeavour to become doctors and IITians 

* One of the largest private sector entrance exams in the country, ANTHE saw more than 3.4 lakh plus students appearing for the exam in 2019 

* Since 2010 when it was first instituted, ANTHE has seen more than 19 lakh students appearing for the Aakash National Talent Hunt Exam 

* Students studying in Class VII- XII can take benefit of this scholarship program 

* Apart from scholarship, students will also get the Meritnation School Booster Course free of cost  

Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), the national leader in test preparation services for aspiring doctors and IITians with more than 200+ centres across the country, has announced revised dates for the Eleventh edition of its flagship Annual Scholarship Exam, named as Aakash National Talent Hunt Exam (ANTHE). The examination will now be held over a period of 9 days starting from December 12 -20, 2020 across 24 states & Union Territories in the country.  

Online examinations will be conducted between December 12-20, 2020 (every day) from 12:00 PM – 08:30 PM. Students can take the exam anytime during this login window. The offline examinations will be held on December 20, 2020 in two shifts - 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM (morning) and 04:00 PM – 05:00 PM (evening) following the government guidelines. 

Post the announcement of the initial examination dates, Aakash Institute had received innumerable requests from students as well as parents from all over India to reschedule the dates for ANTHE 2020 amid the pandemic and festive season. Additionally, during this period several schools will be conducting their Pre-Board examinations which will make it difficult for students to prepare for ANTHE 2020. Standing true to its core value of student-first, Aakash Institute has decided to reschedule ANTHE 2020 in the interest of the students so that they can appear for the exam without any hindrances. 

Being one of the largest private sector pan-India exams, ANTHE gives deserving students an opportunity to earn up to 100% scholarship and helps them take the first step in their endeavour to become doctors and IITians. In 2019 alone, the number of students who appeared for the exam was more than 3.4 lakhs. The last date for submitting enrolment form for ANTHE 2020 is 3 days before the date of the online exam and 7 Days before the date of the offline exam. The exam fee is a nominal Rs. 200 which can be paid through net banking channels, debit card, credit card or directly at Aakash Institute’s branch/centre.  

As an additional benefit, students enrolling for ANTHE will also get the Meritnation school booster course free of cost. Meritnation is a subsidiary of AESL. 

The results will be declared on 4th Jan 2021 for students studying in Class X, XI, XII and on 2nd Jan 2021 for students studying in Class VII, VIII & IX. 

2000+ students across Classes VII to XII will be eligible for 100% scholarship on Tuition Fee, along with 700 students eligible for Cash Awards.   

Beyond the top scoring students, there will also be attractive scholarships on Tuition Fee based on the marks scored by the student in ANTHE test. 

The countrywide talent hunt will be conducted across the states & Union Territories of Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. AESL has also announced that more ANTHE centres can be opened in any city on request from students, parents or school authorities, subject to minimum conditions. 

Commenting on the rescheduling of dates of ANTHE 2020, Mr. Aakash Chaudhry, Director and CEO of Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), said “We are overwhelmed by the response that ANTHE has received over the last decade. Today, it has emerged as one of the largest gateways in the country for school students aspiring to realise their Medical or IIT dreams. Keeping the current situation in mind, we have rescheduled the dates for the examination so that the students get time to prepare better. To encourage more participation, we have invited applications from students’ studying in Class VII-XII.” 

About Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) 

Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) provides comprehensive test preparatory services for students preparing for Medical and Engineering Entrance Examinations, School/Board Exams and Competitive Exams such as NTSE, KVPY, and Olympiads. The “Aakash” brand is associated with quality coaching and a proven student selection track record in various prestigious Medical and Engineering Entrance Examinations, Scholarship exams & Olympiads. 

With over 33 years of operational experience in the test preparatory industry with a PAN India network of 205+ Aakash Centers (including franchisee), and a student count of more than 2,50,000, Aakash is the biggest education organisation in India. A subsidiary of the AESL group, Aakash Edutech Pvt Ltd (AEPL) was launched in the year 2020. It comprises two distinct divisions namely, Aakash Digital and Meritnation.    

For Every ₹ 1 Invested, Dettol School Hygiene Education Programme Delivers ₹ 33.05 of Social Value

●        In the past three years, initial investment of Dettol School Hygiene Curriculum INR 15.9 crore has yielded worthy outcomes

●        At a time when hand hygiene is of critical importance to prevent the spread of COVID-19, an increase of 86% in the adoption of hygiene practices by students was witnessed  

RB, under its flagship campaign, Dettol Banega Swasth India today, launched the Social Return on Investment (SROI) Evaluation Study Report of its successful Dettol School Hygiene Education Programme at ISC-FICCI Indian Sanitation Conclave 2020. The virtual discussion focused on the need for an integrated approach to WASH in schools in the times of covid-19.

The link between hygiene and public health has now been clearly established. Yet, proper hand washing practices remain elusive in much of the country. Even before a meal, 69.9% of rural India still washes their hands without soap. Another 15% only wash their hands with water after defecation. The Dettol School Hygiene Programme was envisioned as a step towards improving poor sanitary practices in schools, homes, and communities, by promoting behavioral changes.

Mr. Ravi Bhatnagar, Director External Affairs and Partnerships, Reckitt Benckiser Health AMESA said, “We at Dettol BSI believe in the idea of health & hygiene for all. Dettol School Curriculum in partnership with our development partners was introduced to drive behavior change among young children based on age appropriate behavioral nudges. Our aim is to emphasize on the need to facilitate a sanitized environment & to create the importance of WASH in preventing the spread of infection amongst children.”

He further added, “There is a tremendous amount of work done by corporates, NGOs and citizens to work with the Government. However, to address the current situation we all must come together to fight this pandemic. A standalone intervention receives a lower social return on investment, however with an  integration of interventions which is more nutrition-sensitive including water, right to nutrition & diarrhoea management, social return on investment touches the ratio of 1:47. This creates a bigger impact on society. It's time we look at hygiene, sanitation and health together and not separately to tackle this pandemic.”

Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Chair, India Sanitation Coalition said “In addition to the monetary investment, corporates like RB also bring their ability to successfully implement and their need to measure outcomes that we see in the SROI report of the Dettol School Hygiene Education Programme. The fact that we can measure every 1 rupee invested has delivered 33 rupees of social value is a huge multiplier when looking at actual impact on ground.”

“Through the hygiene programs in school, we have seen role reversal of children & parents where children have taken up the role of teaching the right way to wash hands. They have become an agent of change in communities in spreading awareness about health & hygiene. We believe that hygiene curriculum should be part of the daily school day. As we have seen through the pandemic, the only way to protect ourselves from diseases is by washing hands.” said Ms. Tinni Sawhney, CEO, Aga Khan Foundation.

Key highlights from the report:

●        For every ₹ 1 invested, the Dettol School Hygiene Education Programme delivers ₹ 33.05 of social value

●        An initial investment of INR 15.9 crore has yielded worthy outcomes through innovations such as using creative platforms to reinforce key hygiene measures, structured hygiene sessions in schools, supporting trainings at multiple levels and more, we have brought about social value worth INR 526 crore

●        At a time when hand hygiene is of critical importance to prevent the spread of COVID-19, an increase of 86% in the adoption of hygiene practices by students was witnessed  

●        The program has reached 13 million children so far and counting across 8 states, 40 districts and 650,000 schools across India

●        250+ Schools awarded by PM under Swachh Vidyalaya (Clean School) Awards

●        Direct Impact on children:

o   14.2% Reduction in diarrhoea among children

o   17% Increase in school attendance

o   89% students follow all the necessary hygiene practices which have been taught in school

o   92% students share hygiene knowledge with parents and family members

The Dettol School Hygiene Education Programme seeks to drive behaviour change through a multifaceted approach, which targets schools and the community at large. The school programme has been designed in recognition of the fact that, by changing the mindset and behaviour of school students, they can become a catalyst for change in schools, homes and neighbourhoods. By working with teachers and principals, the right knowledge can be passed on to build good habits in children and future generations.

Major School Hygiene Education Programme interventions that helped to bring Behavioural Change Communication/aspect are:

Hygiene Corner: A dedicated corner to teach WASH practices using posters, paintings, etc.

Adoption of Games and Experiential Learning Methods: Gamification helped to make learning fun and day-to-day application led to experimentation of the lessons learnt at home and in school.

Distribution of Hygiene Kits: Access to soaps, hand-wash and sanitary pads.

Soap Banks: Soap kept near toilets and wash basins for use before and after meals or after using the toilet./

Vi Unveils Collaborative Program to Offer Range of Benefits for Learning & Upskilling, Health & Wellness, and Business Help

Equipping consumers for a better tomorrow, Vi - the newest telecom brand, today announced its collaborative program to offer unique propositions across learning & upskilling, health & wellness, and business help for the Indian mobile users. Vodafone Idea Limited has launched this initiative to address the changing requirements of today’s digital society enabling individuals and enterprises to get a range of benefits and value-adds.

Through this new proposition, Vi will offer not just enriched connectivity but also an array of digital products and services to complement the core business.

In just a few months’ time, the world has seen a permanent shift in the way we live and work. The pandemic has accelerated digital adoption and telecommunications has become a platform for this digital society. The changing circumstances have seen the consumer needs evolve beyond connectivity and entertainment, to online education, health, and business becoming daily essentials in the digital way of life.

To cater to consumer needs, VIL has entered into strategic partnerships with key players in the areas of Learning & Upskilling, Health & Wellness, and Business help to offer benefits to the new age customers. The company has forged partnerships with upGrad, Udemy, Pedagogy, cure.fit, 1mg, MFine, Eunimart and others, and plans to on-board more partners under each of these areas to enable Vi users get exclusive offers from these players.

Commenting on the initiative, Ravinder Takkar, MD & CEO, Vodafone Idea said, “One of the key pillars of VIL’s business strategy is to drive partnerships and digital revenue streams, across segments. This will help us drive more value for our customers and offer growth opportunities for the business.”

“Having established pan-India 4G coverage for 1 Bn Indians and delivering fastest 4G speeds, Vi is now bringing a range of new age service offerings to address the digital shift in customer behaviour. Through our collaboration with the category best across key areas of consumer interest such as learning & upskilling, health & wellness, and business help, Vi will now offer a platform of services for our customers”, further added Ravinder Takkar.

Vi customers can look forward to more such possibilities in the next few weeks!

To avail the exclusive benefits, Vi customers just need to download the Vi app and unlock the benefits. The offer is available to all prepaid, postpaid Vi users and not attached to any plan or pack.

SecOps, DevOps and CloudOps Need to Work in Tandem to Achieve Cyber Resilience for Future-Ready Enterprises: CLOUDSEC 2020

* Trend Micro plans to launch its local XDR data lake in India early next month 

* Invests in building a strong cloud delivery team in India, with AWS and Microsoft Azure integration 

CLOUDSEC 2020, one of the industry's biggest cybersecurity events hosted by Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE:4704), attracted more than 100 business and technology leaders from industry-defining companies speaking at the virtual event this year. At the exhilarating three-day event, the panelists and experts emphasized on how a fine balance between SecOps, DevOps and CloudOps should be met, for organizations to achieve success in their digital transformation journey. A model, where CloudOps and SecOps teams can talk about doing touchless or SOC-less security, that is automation all the way through the workflow. Where, DevOps and CloudOps teams can share dashboards and talk a lot about vulnerabilities. Also, where SecOps and DevOps teams can discuss full shift left with no code releases etc. 

They broached on important aspects, such as what they consider to be the biggest barrier to successful cloud migration among organizations – which is, while working with the DevOps function, the question that usually arises is – How come I have to learn about security as DevOps, but security doesn’t have to learn about DevOps? Automation was a hot and trending topic, with two very big in different forms of automation currently underway in security operations. The first one being Automation/ Security-as-Code (SaC) for SOC, which is about focusing on the alert problem. This is a very important form of automation, however, it’s not the automation that drives a successful cloud migration use case. That can be achieved through a different automation - Automation/ SaC for DevOps. The difference is that this automation is targeted at cloud security deployment, configuration and DevOps workflow, and not security operation workflow and operations. 

At the sidelines of the event, Trend Micro also highlighted the tremendous growth they have achieved in India in the last two years, especially in its cloud and endpoint security business. The company has increased its team size to address the cloud requirements and has launched Trend Micro Cloud One – Network Security this year, that delivers simple and comprehensive protection of virtual private clouds at scale to support compliance requirements, with zero disruption to applications or traffic. The company will also launch its local XDR data lake next month in India, available for key partners and SOC solution providers. Trend Micro will continue to have a razor-sharp focus on banking, manufacturing and government sectors as the major segments for the coming year. 

Nilesh Jain, Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, Trend Micro said, “India is a growing and an important market for us. As the cybersecurity industry and the technology landscape evolves, we see ourselves transitioning to become a DevOps company, emphasising more on product development to drive growth. With digitalisation and the ongoing pandemic, Indian enterprises are rapidly moving to cloud and adopting next generation technologies and SaaS based solutions. There is a growing concern on data sovereignty issues, and at Trend Micro we consider this as a big priority and hence have decided to invest in our local data lake for majority of our critical projects like XDR, Apex One and Cloud App Security solutions. We opine that enterprises will increasingly choose solutions from vendors who give them assurance on their confidential data not leaving geographical boundaries of the country. Also, globally we will be launching file storage security for cloud, which is a first-of-its-kind and unique offering that is going to address the requirements of customers.” 

Sharing his advice for CIOs and CISOs on choosing the right security solution and safeguarding their journey to the cloud, he further added, “Analyzing technologies which provide proactive protection and detection with cross-generational technology to prevent cyberattacks should be a priority. It is also important to invest in technology with minimum of five years value in mind, for it to be effective. Being the organizations’ security gatekeepers, they need to identify a vendor who provides best-in-class solutions in all categories with the ability to integrate and work together, without compromising on the functionalities and security posture. This is where XDR comes into the picture.” 

With respect to the growth of its channel and partner ecosystem, Trend Micro is investing heavily in building a strong service and cloud delivery team in India, considering the tight integration with AWS and Microsoft Azure. The company is enabling and recruiting partners with the skillsets of doing API, SOC/SOAR integration, incident response services, coding and programming and those who understand security analytics. This team will also be responsible for developing partner ecosystem not only in India but also in APAC and bigger regions for Trend Micro. 

About CLOUDSEC 

Founded in 2011, CLOUDSEC has established itself as a global community for cyber security experts and professionals. The CLOUDSEC 2020 tagline “Transformation Your Way” aims to inspire technology professionals and users to achieve transformation wherever they are in the digital transformation lifecycle. The virtual event this year enables enterprises to stay connected, informed and on track with their cloud security journey - through access to insightful resources, thought leadership and networking. 

About Trend Micro 

Trend Micro, a global leader in cybersecurity, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Leveraging over 30 years of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro enables resilience for businesses, governments, and consumers with connected solutions across cloud workloads, endpoints, email, IIoT, and networks. Our XGen™ security strategy powers our solutions with a cross-generational blend of threat-defense techniques that are optimized for key environments and leverage shared threat intelligence for better, faster protection. With over 6,700 employees in 65 countries, and the world's most advanced global threat research and intelligence, Trend Micro enables organizations to secure their connected world.