PM Narendra Modi Interacts With Construction Workers of Delhi Metro Tunnel On Vi 5G Digital Twin, Designed For Worker Safety In India

-          Hon’ble PM makes the first call on Vi 5G Live network from India Mobile Congress being held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

-          Hon’ble PM connects with Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena and a construction worker, during an Immersive Tour of the site, enabled by Vi 5G Digital Twin

Taking a leap into the future, Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL), switched on its Live 5G network at India Mobile Congress 2022 in the national capital today. The first call on Vi 5G Live network was made by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi who used Vi 5G Digital Twin technology to take an Immersive Tour of Delhi Metro under-construction tunnel in Dwarka. The call was attended by the Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena who facilitated an interaction for the Hon’ble PM with a Worker at the site.

Using high-speed ultra-low latency 5G network, Vi demonstrated to the Hon’ble PM how 5G technology can be used in India for Worker Safety and Efficiency in supervision of critical construction sites such as tunnels, underground working sites, mines etc.

With a 3D Digital Twin of a Delhi Metro tunnel site created on Vi 5G, Hon’ble PM was able to view it remotely in real-time, and review the working conditions and well-being of the workers deployed at the site. 

Along with the Hon’ble PM at IMC for Vi 5G demonstration was Shri Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group.

Talking on the occasion, Shri Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairperson, Aditya Birla Group, said “We are inspired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of Digital India and are committed to make India a global superpower in the Digital era. Vi’s first step in the 5G era is an important milestone in India’s new generation technology odyssey. Vi stands committed to bring the finest in innovative technology and service offerings to take 1.3 billion Indians on an accelerated journey towards individual and collective growth”.

As a leading player in the Indian telecom industry, Vi has developed a range of 5G use cases in partnership with technology companies and domain leaders, to drive the development of 5G ecosystem in the country.

Vi in partnership with Athonet and Tata Communication Transformation Services (TCTS), created the digital twin of under-construction Delhi Metro site in Dwarka region. The set up involved the deployment of eMBB and uRLLC augmented by real-time VR & Artificial Intelligence based applications. 4K HD cameras were installed at site, connecting back to the network through 5G as well as to an Edge compute platform at Vi 5G Core location in Delhi. The digital images were ported on HoloLens worn by an operator for the Hon’ble Prime Minister to experience it live on screen at IMC event. The end to end connectivity from the Site to the Core and IMC Demo location at Pragati Maidan was on Vi 5G network. 

Benefits of Digital Twin on Vi 5G

·         Worker Safety: Project managers can remotely monitor and issue immediate commands to workers in case of any emergency observed at site.

·         Communication & Connectivity: with high speed, low latency 5G technology, connectivity and communication is seamless, real-time and in HD quality.

·         Efficiency: 5G brings efficiency in work as undesirable situations can be avoided, project managers can monitor several sites at the same time and get work done more efficiently.

With a vision for 5G for a Better Tomorrow, Vi is demonstrating a wide range of 5G use cases which can provide for large scale transformation in businesses and society, taking India into the digital era. Vi 5G use cases in many verticals such as Public Safety, Connected Healthcare with Smart Ambulance, Private Networks, IoT Connected Electric Vehicle and Autonomous Mobile Robot, 5G Cloud & Immersive Gaming and more, are available for experience at IMC 2022.

Earlier, during the walkthrough of the exhibition, the Hon’ble PM also visited the Vi Booth to experience SmartAgri – a technology use case developed by Vodafone Idea for transforming agricultural practices in India.

HFCL Announces The Launch of 5G 8T8R Macro Radio Unit

* Next generation RU that combines the power of vRAN and open standards to accelerate 5G deployment

HFCL Limited (HFCL), a leading telecom equipment manufacturer and technology provider today announced the launch of 5G 8T8R Macro Radio Unit (RU), the first product from its 5G product family. HFCL’s 5G 8T8R Macro RU is a next generation RU that has a compact form factor, improved energy efficiency, supports digital beamforming and zero touch provisioning.

5G will accelerate the adoption of virtualization and cloud native technologies. However, most of the current implementations of virtual RAN (vRAN) are based on proprietary technologies. HFCL’s 5G 8T8R Macro RU combines the power of vRAN and O-RAN based open standards. Unlike traditional RAN where all components of RAN must come from the same vendor, HFCL’s 5G 8T8R Macro RU can integrate with any vendor’s virtual baseband unit (vBBU) that is compliant with O-RAN fronthaul specification.

HFCL’s 5G 8T8R Macro RU is 3GPP Release 15 and 16 compliant. It supports n78 frequency band (3.3 – 3.67 GHz) with 8T8R MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) configuration. It is lightweight and compact in form factor and supports natural convection air cooling. It will aid operators in providing better 5G coverage and address capacity requirements in urban, suburban and rural areas. It is modular in design and can be easily customized to support any Sub-6 GHz frequency band to address the global markets. It supports multiple mounting options and can be easily deployed on poles, rooftops, and walls. Security by design is built into the 5G 8T8R Macro RU and it supports secured boot, digitally signed applications, and is hardened against distributed denial-of-service attacks.

Commenting on this product launch, Mr. Mahendra Nahata, MD, HFCL said, “HFCL is proud to bring the world class 5G 8T8R Macro RU product that has been designed and developed completely by our indigenous R&D team to address India and global markets. It also supports needs of rural mobile broadband in the country. Reliable and ubiquitous 5G networks has a critical role to play in making India a digital economy.”

With a distinct set of features designed for improved energy efficiency, HFCL’s 8T8R Macro RU also supports digital beamforming with excellent steering capability for improved customer experience. It supports improved radio resource management and provides seamless interoperability with any industry leading AI/ML powered RAN Intelligent Controllers (RIC). In addition, HFCL’s 5G 8T8R Macro RU supports zero touch provisioning & closed-loop automation and enables faster time-to-market for launch of new 5G services.

About HFCL

HFCL is a leading technology company specialising in creating digital networks for telcos, enterprises and governments.  Over the years, HFCL has emerged as a trusted partner offering sustainable high tech solutions with a commitment to provide the latest technology products to its customers.  Our strong R&D expertise coupled with our global system integration services and decades of experience in fibre optics enable us to deliver innovative digital network solutions required for the most advanced networks.  

The Company’s in-house R&D Centres located at Gurgaon & Bengaluru along with invested R&D houses and other R&D collaborators at different locations in India and abroad, innovate futuristic range of technology products and solutions. HFCL has developed capabilities to provide premium quality Optical Fiber and Optical Fiber Cables , state-of-the-art telecom products including 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) products, 5G Transport Products, WiFi Systems (WiFi 6, WiFi 7), Unlicensed Band Radios, Switches, Routers and Software Defined Radios.

The Company has state-of-the-art Optical Fiber and Optical Fiber Cable manufacturing plants at Hyderabad, Optical Fiber Cable manufacturing plant in Goa and in its subsidiary HTL Limited at Chennai.

We are a partner of choice for our customers across India, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and USA. Our commitment to quality and environmental sustainability inspires us to innovate solutions for the ever-evolving customer needs.

HFCL Launches World’s First Open source Wi-Fi 7 Access Points at India Mobile Congress

* HFCL Partners With Qualcomm To Launch World’s First Open Source Wi-Fi 7 Products Under Its IO Product Line

HFCL Limited, the leading high-tech enterprise and integrated next-gen communication product and solution provider in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. launches world’s first Open source Wi-Fi 7 Access Points under its IO product line at India Mobile Congress, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi on 

HFCL becomes the first OEM to launch Open source Wi-Fi 7 Access Points, based on the IEEE 802.11be - a revolutionary Wi-Fi technology that is designed to deliver Extremely High Throughput (EHT), higher spectral efficiency, better interference mitigation, and Real Time Applications (RTA) support. Wi-Fi 7 uses faster connections with 320MHz and 4kQAM, multiple connections with Multi Link operation and Adaptive Connections for adaptive interference puncturing to deliver all enhanced user’s experience while offering better power efficiency. Compared to all improvements in previous Wi-Fi standards, Wi-Fi 7 promises a huge technological leap, offering an immersive experience to its users, ushering the world towards a digitally stronger path. HFCL’s Wi-Fi 7 APs will support peak data rates of over 10 Gbps and will offer latency under 2 ms compared to 5 Gbps and 10 ms of current Wi-fi 6 products.

Backed by strong R&D focus, HFCL’s Wi-Fi 7 product line will enable tech providers such as telecom operators, Internet service providers, system integrators, and network administrators to offer mission critical and real time application services and deliver better user experience than ever before. The new Wi-Fi 7 product portfolio has a wide range of dual band and tri-band indoor and outdoor variants.

All the Wi-Fi 7 variants will be shipped with open source software making these the first Wi-Fi 7 Access points in the industry to support Open standards. Open standards promote disaggregated Wi-Fi system offered as free open-source software with an aim to offer advanced global connectivity ensuring interoperability in multi-vendor scenario.

Speaking about the launch of this revolutionary product line, Mr. Mahendra Nahata, MD, HFCL said, “We are immensely proud to be the first Indian company to launch Wi-Fi 7 product line in market and the first in the world to offer an Open source Wi-Fi 7 portfolio. Our Wi-Fi 7 portfolio is based on the latest Wi-Fi 7 Qualcomm® Networking Pro Series Platforms and offers better features than any commercial products available in market today. We are really thankful to the Qualcomm Technologies teams for working closely with us and supporting us to make this possible. Ahead of the 5G revolution in India and globally, our Wi-Fi 7 launch is a revolutionary move helping us deliver an immersive experience to our customers globally and putting India in the forefront of global technology leadership.”

Mr. Nahata further added, “Launch of this product line will have several industrial applications especially like the Internet of Things (IoT) and IIoT applications, supporting advancements in Cloud/Edge Computing, Cloud gaming, and other xR-based applications. The very low latency and extremely high bandwidth have many use cases in the medical field as well, especially bringing healthcare facilities to remote locations. It is set to bring us a step closer to the Metaverse and will mitigate network congestion by delivering better connectivity experiences in high density areas and areas with numerous overlapping networks. Our investment in R&D and focus on continuous innovation has enabled us to roll out this futuristic product for users, across the globe. This also aligns with our strategy to roll out new products, reach new customers, and tap new geographies in the coming years.”

The launch of Wi-Fi 7 will primarily complement the new 5G rollout in the country especially for complementing indoor coverage. Further, the technology with its higher throughput, reliable network performance, and lower latency will facilitate the development of various applications. For enterprises, Wi-Fi 7 technology will benefit the Internet of Things (IoT) and IIoT applications such as surveillance, remote control industrial automation, AV/VR/XR, and other video-based applications. It will also increase the number of remote offices, real-time collaborations, and online video conferencing, with many advancements in Cloud/Edge Computing, and Cloud gaming. 

Commenting on this, Mr. Rajen Vagadia, Vice President, Qualcomm India Private Limited and President of Qualcomm India & SAARC said “Wi-Fi 7 brings a multitude of features that can be used to offer extreme speeds, high capacity, and low latency in support of next-generation applications and services. Managing and optimizing the various available spectrum bands is perhaps the signature differentiator for Wi-Fi 7. Together, with 5G, it will help us build a truly digital India, with inclusive and equitable socioeconomic development of both the urban and the rural parts of the country. In the years ahead, both these technologies will be at the heart of a very wide range of use cases, driving innovation and growth across all industries, sectors, and spheres of human activity. We are proud and privileged to work with HFCL on yet another Made-in-India range of products.”

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Registers 66% Growth In Wholesales During September 2022

* Clocks 15,378 units in the month of September 2022

* Cumulative wholesales in this Financial Year from April to September, witnesses an overall growth of 68%

TKM today announced that the company sold a total of 15,378 units in the month of September 2022 thereby registering a growth of 66% over wholesales in September 2021. For reference, TKM had sold 9284 units in the month of September 2021. Cumulative wholesales in this Financial Year from the time period of April to September 2022, has witnessed a phenomenal growth of 68% when compared to the corresponding period last year, further strengthening TKM’s sales-trajectory.

Commenting on the month’s performance, Mr. Atul Sood, Associate Vice President, Sales, and Strategic Marketing, TKM said, “Last month we launched our latest offering from Toyota, the first self-charging strong hybrid electric vehicle in the B SUV segment, the Urban Cruiser Hyryder which was first unveiled in July. The brand new SUV from Toyota has received rave reviews, with booking orders exceeding beyond our expectations and further reinforcing customer’s faith and trust in Toyota’s technological prowess. Pricing for the new model has also been very well received by our customers and the market alike, as we have tried to price all the grades of the Hyryder very competitively. Dispatches of the vehicle have begun recently, and we are thrilled that our customers will be able to drive home the brand new Urban Cruiser Hyryder this festive season. Our segment leading models like the Fortuner, Legender and the Innova Crysta Petrol continue to garner customer orders whilst models like the cool new, Glanza continue to clock promising wholesales as well as customer orders”, he concluded.

SpringML Continues Expansion of Their Delivery Capabilities With The Inauguration of Their New Office In Hyderabad

* The vibrant expanse of the new space reiterates SpringML’s vision for exponential growth in India

SpringML, Inc. (“SpringML”), a trusted partner for data-driven digital transformation, a leader in machine learning and advanced data analytics services, announced that it has opened a new office in Financial District, Hyderabad, India to accommodate rapid growth and leverage the diverse talent pool.

Chief Executive Officer Charles Landry said: “When we started SpringML, our mission and core values were very clear and they remain the same. We strongly believe that if we add value to our customers and provide a collaborative environment of growth to our team, we can build a sustainable business.  The abundance of talent in Hyderabad is obvious and I’m excited to see the next phase of growth in India.” SpringML has been hiring skilled professionals and aspirational talent from major universities with a vision to grow more than 2,000 employees over the next few years.

SpringML’s new office was inaugurated on Friday, 30th September by Chief Guest Mr. Arekapudi Gandhi, Hon. Govt Whip and MLA, Serilingampally Constituency, Government of Telangana. Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Special Chief Secretary of the Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT) Departments of Telangana, was the special guest at the event along with Mr. V. Gangadhar Reddy, GHMC, Corporator, Gachibowli Division. Mr. Muthu Kumaran, Operating Partner and Head of India Operations, Recognize also graced the occasion with his presence.

The new office was designed in accordance with the organization’s belief in blending creativity with innovation. SpringML has also actively adapted to the hybrid work model that has emerged as the future of businesses across the globe.

“Our India team provides us with a strategic advantage given the talent and skills they possess.” says Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Girish Reddy, “The team will now have the choice to come into a world class facility to continue to learn and innovate together.”

The company spearheads critical projects across sophisticated enterprise clients – including Fortune 500 brands – with deep expertise in healthcare, retail, logistics, manufacturing and public sector verticals.

Amit Deshpande, Sr. Vice President and Head of India Development Center(IDC) adds: “From our humble beginnings with a group of 7 budding professionals to a leap of 400+ employees at IDC, SpringML’s growth has been phenomenal. This is fuelled by our amazing teamwork driven with innovation, empathy and curiosity in everything we do. No matter how difficult a customer’s problem, our team’s perseverance to Simplify the Complexity is commendable.”

A driving force enabling SpringML’s impact is the company’s next-generation capability set, including proprietary accelerators, around artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud migration, data analytics and visualization, smart application development, and security solutions.

SpringML was founded in 2015 by President and Chief Strategy Officer Prabhu Palanisamy, Chief Technology Officer Girish Reddy, and Chief Executive Officer Charles Landry. Their India Development Center (IDC) was started in 2018 under the leadership of Amit Deshpande, Senior Vice President and Head of IDC in the rapidly growing IT Hub of India, Hyderabad.

The company has experienced rapid growth since its founding and is today a leading Google Cloud and Salesforce development partner.

Recognize, a technology services investment platform made a strategic investment in SpringML in October 2021.

SpringML won Google Cloud’s Partner of the Year award 2020 - US State and Local Government for their COVID 19 technology solutions. They’ve also won Google Cloud’s Partner of the Month for February 2022.

About SpringML, Inc.

SpringML delivers data-driven digital transformation outcomes with an experimentation and design thinking mindset. We provide Google Cloud consulting and implementation services and industry-specific analytics solutions that deliver high-impact business value from data. SpringML is a Google Cloud partner with capabilities to plan, assess, deploy, and manage data-driven engagements. We have been awarded Google Cloud specialization based on our expertise and customer portfolio for Data Management, Application Development, Data Analytics, Security, Looker, and Machine Learning.

Honeywell Launches Pan-india Afforestation Drive On October 2, 2022 To Support The UN Decade On Ecosystem Restoration

Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF), the philanthropic arm of Honeywell, kicks off “Plant the Future” campaign, a 10-year-long pan-India afforestation drive on October 2, 2022. The initiative aims to mitigate the effects of climate change and strengthen the resilient capacities of the nation against environmental degradation. Honeywell will plant and nurture more than one million saplings across 10 cities between 2022 and 2032, coinciding with the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. 

Plant the Future seeks to strengthen the government’s efforts in promoting green cover and achieving carbon offsetting. For the success of the initiative, 70 percent of the afforestation drive will focus on rural areas and 30 percent in rural areas. HHSIF will partner with government agencies, not-for-profit organizations and industry to realize this ambitious goal. As a first step, HHSIF has adopted a multi-pronged approach by mobilising its existing non-government organization (NGO) partners and employee-volunteers to initiate the plantation drive.

Rajesh Rege, President, Honeywell India, said, “As a responsible corporate citizen, Honeywell is committed to driving the transformation to a sustainable future. While we have pledged to be carbon neutral in our facilities and operations by 2035, our corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts mirror our environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspirations. Plant the Future campaign will mobilize our employees and partners to plant more than one million saplings over 10 years in alignment with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.”

Technologies such as geo-tagging will be deployed to ensure the survival of saplings. The project also seeks to promote rural livelihoods and enable creation of sustainable communities. At the same time, it encourages and inculcates among employee-volunteers a sense of responsibility towards the environment.

About Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF)

Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF) is a not-for-profit organization that deploys Honeywell’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts in five critical areas: education, skill and research, inclusion and diversity, natural resources, and environment, holistic and sustainable community development, and humanitarian relief. HHSIF’s programs include Honeywell STEM Education for Youth, a skilling program for women and youth to build a future-ready workforce; Honeywell Model Village for holistic and sustainable community development; Honeywell Start-up Support Program for incubation in deep science; Honeywell Center for Advancing Girls in Science to promote STEM education among girls; establishment of global center of excellence for affordable and clean energy and Honeywell COVID-19 relief.

Shiprocket Joins Hand With ONDC For Beta Testing Launch In Bangalore

~Shiprocket integrates with ONDC to help about 200 merchants with logistics support across Bangalore region~

Shiprocket, India’s largest tech enablement platform integrates with ONDC or the Open Network for Digital Commerce, a Government of India-backed initiative to democratize e-commerce in India. ONDC is set to begin its beta testing with public users in Bengaluru Urban District today onwards.

With this assimilation, Shiprocket aims to serve more sellers through ONDC network and book more shipments through its platform. The integration enables products to be picked up and delivered from any part of the country, while also giving small retailers and sellers the opportunity to choose the most viable delivery partner for each order and ensure high-quality delivery service to the customers.

Speaking on this integration, Saahil Goel, CEO & Co-founder, Shiprocket said,  “We are pleased to create access for sellers to be a part of the strategic ONDC network, which aims to democratize the digital commerce space and entrust more power to businesses. This association will enable us to positively impact the business momentum of our MSME customers across India by providing them with quality fulfillment services at a competitive price. We started along this journey of democratizing e-commerce in 2017 and are happy to work with ONDC to take this mission onto an even larger platform."

“This integration will accelerate our efforts to make last-mile logistics accessible to a wider audience of buyers and sellers across India. Today, small businesses find it difficult to sign contracts with large logistics companies to ship their products. With Shiprocket and ONDC working in tandem for the beta launch in Bangalore, sellers can now access an improved experience” - T Koshy, CEO, ONDC

Through this, Shiprocket will provide wider reach and various options to the merchants to choose from and to strengthen their end-to-end logistical needs without the hassle of signing contracts with multiple courier partners.

About Shiprocket

Shiprocket is India’s largest eCommerce enablement platform providing digital retailers an end-to-end customer experience platform. The platform which is creating an operating system for direct commerce enables shipping, fulfillment, customer communication and marketing tools as well as providers for SMEs, D2C retailers, and social commerce retailers in India. With 17+ courier partners on board, the brand enables pan-India as well as international shipping deliveries. Its shipping solutions are available across 24,000+ pin codes within India and 220 countries worldwide.

Launched in 2017, Shiprocket is on a mission to create a seamless logistics data platform that connects retailers, carriers, and consumers across national and international locations. Shiprocket provides a technology stack to help retailers integrate their shopping websites on Shopify, Magento, Woocommerce, Zoho, or others with the platform’s multi-carrier API to manage orders, print shipping labels, and avail tracking information from multiple providers including managing Cash on Delivery (COD) orders and payment reconciliation. Shiprocket also offers state-of-the-art fulfillment solutions with more than 45 warehouses located across India. The technology stack provides a robust post-purchase experience to consumers, resulting in higher engagement and lower RTO (failed deliveries).

Today, Shiprocket is the platform behind 2.5 lakh plus sellers who generate a GMV of more than $2.5B annually. The platform delivers packets to more than 70M consumers annually and is growing transactions 2.5-3X year on year.