YatraGenie’s Walkathon Campaign Will Cover Over 60 Indian Cities in 30 Days

YatraGenie, a hyper market for bus, cab and hotel bookings is organizing ‘Walk for public transport,’ a unique initiative to encourage the use of public transportation. The walkathon will commence from Mysore on 1^st May and will cover 60 cities across Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in 30 days.

As a part of this campaign, YatraGenie team will closely interact with the citizens at each city and understand the problems pertaining to the local transport sector. Flyers will be distributed and events will be organized for the public to interact and understand the importance of using public transport.

Speaking on the occasion, Renil Komitla, CEO, YatraGenie said, “The traffic situation in our cities and towns is becoming increasingly congested because of the number of privately owned vehicles.  Today, only a minor chunk of the population is interested in using buses and trains. Public transport facilities have been associated with lack of ease and discomfort.  To ensure that the congestion in our cities does not get more critical, it is imperative to create awareness among public for the usage of existing public transportation. Through this initiative, we want to understand the problems that exist in this sector and suggest measures that can be implemented to improve the facilities”

Towards the end of the 30-day campaign, a report will be submitted to the respective State Urban Development Ministry and Central Urban Development Ministry highlighting the problems and the improvements that can be made in the public transport sectors.

Juniper’s New cSRX and vSRX Provides Industry Leading Firewall Capabilities to Create Secure Networks

Juniper Networks, an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks has announced several breakthrough additions to its cloud and virtualized service offerings as part of its Software-Defined Secure Networks (SDSN) framework. These enhancements include a new compact and containerized virtual firewall called Juniper Networks cSRX, a next-generation firewall providing advanced security services for Software Defined Networks, as well as a multi-core version of the Juniper Networks vSRX, the industry’s fastest virtual firewall that is expected to be capable of reaching 100 Gigabits per second (Gbps). This speed is 10 times greater than the nearest competitor and creates new possibilities for using agile and flexible virtual firewalls.

As the scale and sophistication of threats continue to increase, next-generation security must be built around automated and actionable intelligence that can be enforced quickly to reduce risk and protect the network and its users. Juniper’s vision for SDSN looks to tackle this need with an open threat intelligence platform and enforcement through its robust suite of physical and virtual firewalls, as well as network switches and routers. When combined with an open policy engine and global orchestration, users can set and enforce policy based on intent, either on premises or in the cloud.

Juniper is extending its SDSN offerings by unveiling the industry’s first virtual firewall in a containerized form factor. The cSRX is expected to provide a cost effective way to wrap advanced security services around every workload and the ability to scale up to high multi-tenancy. Additionally, Juniper is announcing a massive increase in performance on its vSRX, which further extends its lead as the industry’s fastest and most scalable virtual firewall. Both products are anticipated to enable the network to better detect and combat threats through increased performance, intelligence, and a higher density of services on the Intel® Xeon® processor family (x86 platform). These enhancements to Juniper’s virtualized security portfolio extend the network and security administrator’s ability to provision and scale firewall protection, enabling more enforcement points across the network to stop threats faster.

India Centre Expands R&D Center & Launches NI India Business Incubator Program

National Instruments (NI) India has launched the NI India Business Incubator Program and announced the expansion of their Research and Development Center in India. Both these initiatives aim to support the government’s Make in India program and enable Indian engineers to become global knowledge partners in driving innovation and development across industries and domains.

The expansion of the India RandD Center ensures that NI has access to the top talent instrumental in building a platform that meets the needs of all engineers and scientists today. NI works with leading universities to hire the best and brightest talent within the region and provides world-class, formal and on-the-job training to create a long-term and sustained career progression.

“We strongly believe we can help the Indian startup ecosystem overcome technological hurdles and succeed faster,” said Scott Rust, senior vice president of Global R&D at NI. “Our platform provides the fastest way for engineers and scientist to access new technology and accelerate productivity, innovation, and discovery.  By providing access to NI's platform and technologies, we are investing in future innovators and contributing towards sustainable development in all markets that we serve.”

Through NI India’s Business Incubator Program, NI will provide increased access to NI technology, technical training and support to shared local communities like domestic Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), academic incubation centers and startups.

"For Make in India to succeed and sustain, manufacturing in India should bring more benefits to the table than just cost of labor. Companies can differentiate themselves by adopting smart technologies to reduce defects and improve quality,” said Jayaram Pillai, Managing Director, NI India. “NI’s technology provides a flexible and powerful platform to build these intelligent systems that power the factory of the future. Startups are an integral part of building the future and we believe that the NI India Business Incubator Program will contribute to the Make in India initiative.”

To extend its reach and maximize the impact of the Business Incubator Program, NI is partnering with mission-aligned local organizations, as well as experienced technology and business consultants, to provide world-class support and assistance to the applicants. It is also aligned with the flagship initiative of the Government of India, Start-up India, which strives to build a solid eco-system to support innovation, promote domestic startups and generate viable economic growth by generating large-scale employment opportunities. These forward-looking actions of the Indian Government and the abundance of engineering talent will significantly contribute to Bangalore’s transformation into the home of some of the best technology companies in India and abroad.

Teams from Rupnagar, Nainital & New Delhi Emerge Winners of 14th Edition of Imagine Cup

Microsoft India announced the winners of the India leg of Imagine Cup 2016, after concluding the National Finals held in New Delhi. Imagine Cup is a global student technology competition, and one of Microsoft’s many efforts to transform skill development, nurture budding technologists and foster innovative spirit. Three teams emerged as the winners under each of the three categories – World Citizenship, Gaming and Innovation after an intense contest among 27 teams from across the country.  One grand winner will now be chosen to represent India at the upcoming worldwide finals in July in Seattle, USA, to compete among global teams for a US$ 50,000 prize.

Congratulating the winners of this year’s national finals, Narendra Bhandari, General Manager, Developer Experience and Evangelism, Microsoft India, said, “Over the last 14 years, Microsoft Imagine Cup has been cultivating a spirit of social and technological entrepreneurship, empowering students to use their creativity to address real societal problems through technology. The participants have shown remarkable effort, zeal and enthusiasm to develop cutting-edge technology solutions to help resolve some of the world’s issues and challenges. I wish the winners and the participating teams the very best and congratulate them on this feat. At Microsoft, we will continue in our commitment to empower youth with opportunities, help them imagine new possibilities and nurture the entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

Microsoft Imagine Cup continues to witness strong participation from India, as well as world over. This year, more than 9500 students participated from 23 states across India in the contest. The winning teams showcased their innovative thinking, technical skills and ground-breaking solutions to address everyday challenges. Team KudaPehchano developed a real-time garbage management system using machine learning and vision techniques, while Team DIGIY developed an interesting game of suspense and Team AxeJulius built an app to publish ebooks and share them with the public. While the World Citizenshipcategory is focused on solving global problems in areas such as health, environment, and human rights, the Innovation category seeks ideas that appeal to consumer audiences, as well as inspire and delight a wider audience. The Games category challenges teams to develop innovations that raise the bar in the global game revolution. This year’s competition included three engaging contests under these three categories - the Hello Cloud Challenge, and the Earth Challenge, in addition to the main competition, to empower students to explore various avenues and platforms to develop and showcase their ideas.

Imagine Cup is one of Microsoft’s many efforts to transform skill development, nurture budding technologists and foster collaborative and innovative spirit.  Now in its 14^th year, this global technology competition boasts of several success stories emerging from the competition. Last year, CodeBlue, an Indian team, bagged second place in the Apps for Office Challenge at the Imagine Cup 2014 Worldwide Finals held in Seattle on July 31, 2014. Team CodeBlue was awarded a cash prize worth USD 3,000 for their innovative app – Molecule Maker, which provides a library of molecule visualizations in World, Excel and Powerpoint, enabling the representation of molecules visually. After competing in the Imagine Cup in 2009, Mrityunjay Bhadauria launched his project into a company, EDUKINECT. Based in Hyderabad, the company provides an educational service platform to help more than 20,000 students be future-ready. The business has grown by 400% annually – supporting educational services in more than 150 engineering campuses across India.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni Figures in LAVA New Brand Campaign

Lava International Limited, one of the leading players in the Indian mobile handset industry, launched its latest multi-channel marketing campaign featuring its brand ambassador and India’s most successful national ODI Cricket team captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. With this campaign, Lava aims to strengthen its brand identity as the most trusted and reliable mobile handset brand in the mobile handset industry. The integrated 12-week long, 360 degree marketing campaign comprises three different television commercials along with out-of-home, retail and digital marketing initiatives.

Thrilled with the launch of Lava’s new brand campaign, Solomon Wheeler, Vice President and Head – Marketing and Communications, Lava International Limited, said, “We are very excited to launch this campaign with Mahendra Singh Dhoni on board as our brand ambassador. We, at LAVA, believe that to build a truly endearing brand one cannot rely on just tactical differentiators; it has to be based on core values which in our case are – Integrity, passion for excellence and adaptability. Put together these values create a culture that ensures we deliver reliable products and services to our customers every time. Also, various industry reports bear testimony to our excellent product quality and after sales service which are unmatched amongst Indian mobile handset brands.”

Lava recently brought on board Soho Square, part of the WPP group, to take on Lava’s creative mandate. This is their first campaign for the brand.

The three TV commercials, each 30 seconds in duration, were shot in different settings – in locker room, steam room and a table tennis room. During each sequence the brand ambassador can be seen in conversation with a Lava representative, played by Prateik Babbar, who is trying to convince MS Dhoni to endorse Lava and vouch for the reliability of Lava’s products. While the protagonist, MS Dhoni, tries to test the Lava phones in different situations, the confident Lava representative mentions how each Lava phone undergoes thousands of tests to ensure its reliability. The commercials conclude with the brand’s new tagline - ‘Never lets you down’.

On conceptualizing the campaign for Lava, Dip Sengupta, Senior Vice President and Head of Advertising at Soho Square said, “The story of Lava is the story of reliability. It is something that is hardwired in the DNA of the organization and the great products that come out of its R&D facilities and manufacturing centers. When we delved deep into the products, we realized that the rigor and the drive for excellence that goes into each Lava phone was a story waiting to be told. The campaign with MS  Dhoni was therefore a natural next step. We wanted the code of reliability to come across in an endearing manner and MS Dhoni's interactions with the Lava representative does that effortlessly." 

Ethihad Unveils New Innovative Mobile App to Enhance Travel Experience

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has launched a mobile application for the iPhone that enables guests to organise and manage their journey with even greater ease as the airline continues to adopt innovative technology to reimagine the flying experience.

Etihad Airways guests will enjoy 10 per cent off flights, and members of the airline’s loyalty programme Etihad Guest, will receive 250 bonus miles for every booking made through the mobile app before 30 May 2016. Those who attend the Etihad Airways stand (ME 2310) at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai from April 25 – 28, 2016 will be able to trial the app’s considerable features and functionality.

The Etihad Airways mobile app is simple and enjoyable to use, providing comprehensive trip management capabilities by taking full advantage of the latest innovations in mobile technology. Guests can organise their journey on the app including booking tickets, checking-in and viewing the status of their flight.

The airline also partnered with Abu Dhabi Airports Company, enabling guests to navigate their way around Abu Dhabi International Airport using indoor maps – a first in the Middle East. The mobile app also incorporates high resolution enhanced seat maps, giving passengers a detailed layout of the cabin and their chosen seat. 

Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways Chief Commercial Officer, said: “Etihad Airways is dedicated to delivering excellence in every single guest interaction, be it face to face or on digital channels. We strive to provide innovative solutions that ensure our guests enjoy a seamless world-class service. We are confident that our guests will be delighted with the speed of the app, its ease of use and its considerable functionality. Regular travellers will also appreciate the ability to organise their journey on the go – all on the mobile app.”

The Etihad Airways’ app allows passengers to check in for their flight by using their mobile phone to simply scan their passport page. Guests can also pay for their tickets by scanning their credit card, eliminating the need to enter passenger details and payment information manually.

The simple booking process allows guests to compare multiple fare choices and upgrade options. In the ‘My Trips’ section guests can view all their past and upcoming trips, which are automatically linked to their Etihad Guest reward programme account. Boarding passes can be viewed from the app or downloaded directly to iOS Wallet.

The app offers a ‘countdown to take off’ feature to ensure guests arrive at the departure gate in plenty of time. Live flight status updates provide real time flight information enabling passengers’ family and friends to track their flight.

The mobile app is one of many innovative solutions being developed across Etihad Airways as part of its Digital Guest Innovation strategy. This technology strategy ensures that Etihad Airways and its equity partner airlines embed world-class technologies to deliver a range of services and products that enhance the guest experience and ensure passengers’ air travel expectations are met.

Robert Webb, Etihad Aviation Group’s Chief Information Technology Officer, said: “The mobile app marks a great step forward in our Digital Guest Innovation strategy. Through technology, we’re creating more personalised and tailored digital services and products to benefit our guests. This is just the beginning as we continue to empower our guests with greater control and flexibility over the entire booking and travel experience including how they choose to interact with our airline.”

The new Etihad Airways iPhone app is available now to download via the App Store.

Gujarat Lions Appoints Reliance Games as Official Gaming Partner for IPL Season 9

Reliance Games, a leading publisher and developer of mobile games has announced partnership with Indian Premier League’s newest cricket team Gujarat Lions. With this partnership, Reliance Games becomes the Official Gaming Partner of the Rajkot based team, led by ace batsman Suresh Raina.

The games will allow players to customize their team, engage with their favorite T20 stars - Suresh Raina, Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch and other champion cricketers in the Gujarat team by playing with their favorite superstars in the game.

“The Gujarat Lions team is making waves this IPL and fans now have the perfect opportunity to engage and play with their favorite stars. The game will bring to life player management, cricket action and an immersive 3D gameplay experience,” Amit Khanduja, CEO, Reliance Entertainment-Digital.

Reliance Games’ has developed top chart cricket games in the past for tournaments like ICC World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy etc. Besides team management based game play, Reliance is also set to launch a series of exciting cricket themed games covering genres like casual, puzzle and real action for this IPL season. Customers can download these games from App Store & Google Play free of cost.

Commenting on the partnership, Amit Khanduja, CEO, Reliance Entertainment-Digital said, “We are excited to be the official gaming partners for Gujarat Lions and  Intex. Cricket lends itself to amazing player experiences & infinite potential for game design since fans adore their cricketers and the sport itself. With our new series of fun IPL games, we plan to enhance cricket enthusiast’s gaming experience both on the field and now on their smart phones and new Intex devices.”

Vineet Singh, VAS Head, Intex Technolgies (India) Ltd. said, “We are delighted to announce Reliance Games as our official gaming partner. Reliance Games has an incredible team with some amazing ideas for games for the Gujarat team. Being the latest entrant this IPL season we aim to enthuse our fans by giving them a larger than life cricketing experience with a multitude of games. This is a start of a new beginning for Intex and in future new high engaging products will be launched based on user’s interests & needs, which compliments well with our devices.