First Whole Time Woman Director Takes Charge at Bharat Electronics

Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has got its first woman whole time Director. Anandi Ramalingam, who has taken charge as Director (Marketing), BEL, was General Manager heading the Military Communication Strategic Business Unit (SBU) at BEL’s Bangalore Complex prior to her elevation.

Anandi Ramalingam joined BEL-Bangalore in March 1985 after completing her BE in Electronics and Communication engineering from the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. For the next 20 years, she gained diverse experience in equipment testing working across various domains of military communication including heading testing for ‘Shakti”, the flagship Artillery Combat Command and Control System, developed by BEL and DRDO for the Indian Army and AREN (Army Radio Engineered Network) winning the Raksha Mantri’s Award. During this period, she was also awarded the Executive Excellence Award, in the very first year of its inception.

In 2004, she was roped in as part of the team formed to set up the Marketing Division for the Military Communication & Electronic Warfare SBU at Bangalore Complex. The team pioneered proactive business development practices in BEL and gradually assisted other SBUs in establishing effective marketing systems. In 2007, she was elevated as the Marketing Head of the Military Communication SBU where her team could achieve record growth in order book and turnover.

With over three decades experience in the city-based public sector enterprise, Ramalingam has expertise in equipment testing gained by working across domains of military communication.

“She headed testing for ‘Shakti’, the flagship artillery combat command and control system, developed indigenously with DRDO for the Indian army and its radio engineered network,” the statement said.

In 2004, Ramalingam was part of the team, which had set up marketing division for the military communication & electronic warfare unit here, it said, adding that in 2010, she was moved to international marketing division to head defence offsets, establishing the company as a reliance global supply chain partner for original equipment manufacturers.

Junaid Ahmad Take Over as World Bank’s Country Director India

Junaid Ahmad has taken over as the World Bank’s new Country Director for India, replacing Onno Ruhl, who completed his four-year term, an official statement said here on Tuesday.

Ahmad, a Bangladeshi national, was formerly the Chief of Staff to World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

“India’s recent growth and development has been one of the most significant achievements of our time. With historic changes unfolding and new opportunities emerging, Junaid will bring to this key position strategic leadership along with considerable experience of working in both India and South Asia to support this transformation,” Kim said.

Ahmad joined the World Bank in 1991 as a young professional. Later he worked in the World Bank on infrastructure development in Africa and Eastern Europe.

He has since held several management positions, leading the bank’s programme in diverse regions, including Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in India and South Asia.  

Anand Chandrasekaran Hired to Help Facebook Messenger App Grow

Signalling how important India is for its growth, Facebook has hired Anand Chandrasekaran, a former Yahoo executive who was working as chief product officer at e-tailer Snapdeal, to boost future prospects for its Messenger app.

Based out of Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters, Chandrasekaran will focus on building strategies and partnerships for Messenger which hit one billion users in July this

“They say the best journeys bring you home. We embarked on one two-and-a-half years ago, and it has been nothing short of incredible. I am super excited to share that building on the learning and experiences, I am joining Facebook to work on Facebook Messenger platform,” Chandrasekaran wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

“Core to every major platform I’ve worked on is a belief that technology should help level the playing field for all-something that is at the heart of Facebook and Messenger,” he added.

Chandrasekaran co-founded Aeroprise, a mobile applications software company.

India has become a critical market for Facebook which is now second only to the US in terms of Facebook users.

“Messenger is going to be the next big platform for sharing privately,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said.

“Connecting India is an important goal we won’t give up on, because more than a billion people in India don’t have access to the internet,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.

Agencies

IIT – Guwahati Campus Gets New Super-Computing Facility

Union Human Resource Development Minister Praksh Javadekar unveiled “Param-Ishan” – a super-computing facility at IIT -Guwahati.

The high-performance “Param-Ishan” has computing speed of 250 teraFLOPS and capacity of 300 tera bites (TB).

The 250 teraFLOPS means that computer is capable of performing 250 trillion operations per second. The supercomputer was installed in a partnership of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and IIT – Guwahati.

“It is a one of the glad moments to have fastest and most powerful computer in northeastern, eastern and southern regions,” Javadekar said after unveiling the Param-Ishan super computer.

He said that C-DAC and IIT – Guwahati partnership will provide a boost to both the high performance computer users and the community through the deployed Param-Ishan and several technology areas will be positively affected through the introduction of the new supercomputer.

Prof. Gautam Biswas, Director of IIT – Guwahati, said that Param-Ishan will not only augment the research initiatives in the institute, but also help in creating an ecosystem for attracting right talents to the field of research.

Param-Ishan can be used in several scientific and engineering application areas, including weather, climate modelling and seismic data processing. This would be helpful as north east India receives heavy rainfall during monsoon, which leads to flooding and landslides.   

Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Jeans Coming Out of Andhra Pradesh

Baba Ramdev is planning to make Andhra Pradesh his second most important base in India after Uttarakhand, and there's a reason for that. 

 Baba Ramdev, who enjoys ‘Most Favoured Baba’ status in Andhra Pradesh is planning to make the state his second most important base in India after Uttarakhand. 

According to sources, Baba has acquired about 200 acres of land near Naidupeta in Nellore district to set up a manufacturing unit for the Patanjali products including his proposed jeans.

Naidupeta is one of the six places he has selected to set shop to expand his business empire. The facility will produce all health products to cater to the demand of Southern states. Baba himself revealed his plan to the media in his Haridwar's Sant Ashram.

Huge procurement of Red Sanders from Andhra Pradesh forest department has strengthened the bond between Naidu's government and Baba Ramdev. At a time when, the state government was struggling to find a buyer for its stockpiled Red Sanders, which is available only in Andhra Pradesh, Baba had come forward and bought 706 MTs of the precious wood.

He was the only major buyer in the domestic market fetching the state about ₹207 crore. Baba is expected to use Red Sanders as an ingredient in his Ayurvedic medicines and incense sticks.

Chief Minister Naidu's plan was to dispose off of the confiscated Red Sanders in the international market and use the proceeds for the construction of Amaravati. But his plann failed. Baba, however, came to the rescue of his cash-starved state to an extent in 2015.

This is said to have paved the path for a new kind of cooperation between Andhra Pradesh and Baba Ramdev. State health minister Kamineni Srinivas also visited Baba's Ashram in Haridwar and personally extended an invitation to Baba to make the state a yoga hub in tune with the state's plan to promote health and religious tourism. He was invited as the chief guest to the Godavari Pushkarlu celebrations at Rajahmundry.

Baba Ramdev is planning many projects in the truncated state, where religious tourism is being promoted as a priority area. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has accorded unprecedented honour to the Baba. Ramdev is the first baba to have been invited to the state to set up a Yoga Village on the lines of his Haridwar Ashram.

Later, an invitation was also extended to Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev of Isha Foundation, which is establishing its ashram at Amaravati. Naidu's government is said to have assured about 400 acres of land to Sadhguru’s project.

In the meantime, the state government has requested Baba to set up an "Ayurveda and Yoga Village" at Tirupati. According to sources, the government has already instructed the officials to identify the suitable land for the Baba's project. The sources said Baba has expressed his willingness to develop a naturopathy centre and goshala (cow shelter) at Tirupati in association with Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).

“The proposed Ayurvedic and Yoga Gram will be the second-largest centre of Baba's empire, after Haridwar,” the sources said.

They also said the Baba had plans to establish permanent yoga and meditation centres in all major temple towns in Andhra Pradesh which include Vijayawada, Simhachalam and Srisailam.

With Tirupati and nearby Naidupeta emerging as his favourite areas, Andhra Pradesh is expected to become Baba's Southern outpost.

Trains Faster-than-Aeroplane to Run on Indian Rails Shortly

Hyperloop, whose idea was first presented in 2013, runs faster than an aircraft at a top speed of 1120 Kmph.

If Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has his way with high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, the American billionaire's company SpaceX may test-run its futuristic high-speed train, the Hyperloop, in Pune.

Speaking about his recent visit to the American west coast, which is the global hub of hi-tech innovations, Gadkari said he spent quality time with the officials of Tesla, which is also founded by Musk, who is known for his futuristic ideas.

"I just offered them ... they want some road for experimental purpose. I offered them the westerly bypass of Pune connected to the Express Highway. The idea is they can take an experiment between Mumbai and Pune as a pilot project," he said, without naming SpaceX.

He said the Hyperloop, whose idea was first presented in 2013, runs faster than an aircraft at a speed of 1,120kmph and can cut the distance between his hometown Nagpur and Mumbai in 35 minutes.

Among other things, SpaceX is also working on commercialising space travel. Speaking about the futuristic concept which is yet to be commercialised, the minister said the Hyperloop "is a tube" which uses air for propulsion.

The company's website says SpaceX is "interested in helping to accelerate development of a functional Hyperloop prototype".

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also confirmed that there indeed have been some discussions between the governments on such a proposal but was quick to add that the state has asked the company to develop the product first before making test-runs in the area.

Gadkari said the government had invited Tesla to invest in the country as he expressed interest in clean energy like solar and battery storage, areas in which the American company is focused on.

He said he also encouraged Musk to set up a manufacturing base in Pune. Tesla has been offered land free of cost near some ports.

Idea Rolls Out e-KYC ‘Aadhaar’ Based SIM Activation across its Service Centres

Idea Cellular, India’s fastest growing telecom operator has announced the roll out of ‘electronic – Know Your Customer (e-KYC)’based activations for both Prepaid and Postpaid customers across its service centres in 22 circles. The pan-India roll-out of e-KYC has been enabled after the successful pilot by Idea in Delhi circle, in association with UIDAI, and as per the DoT guidelines. 

The e-KYC solution allows users to avail instant verification using their ‘Aadhaar’ Number, enabling quicker SIM activation.

The facility for enabling biometric verification of customers is being rolled out across all exclusive Idea stores, and will be extended to multi-branded prepaid outlets, in a phased manner.

Speaking about the initiative,  Navanit Narayan, Chief Service Delivery Officer, Idea Cellular said, “The roll-out of paperless and completely digital mode of customer acquisition based on ‘Aadhaar’, is in line with Idea’s customer centric approach. It will ensure quicker customer acquisition and greater convenience for new customers. This is also a step towards achieving a greener environment through reduced paper usage and is key to enabling the vision of Digital India by facilitating many e-Governance services to be rolled out in future.”

Customers can now walk in to any Idea Company Retail Store or My Idea outlet and avail a fast, paperless and secured activation service for both postpaid and prepaid, using the Aadhaar No. and biometric verification process.

The e-KYC process is in addition to the existing format of issuance of mobile connection to subscribers and is not be applicable for bulk, outstation and foreign customers.