VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

To increase the broadband penetration in the country. The mission made project BharatNet is to provide 100 Mbps broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats. India has plans to reach 600 million broadband connections as per National Telecom Policy 2012 says Minister for Communications Manoj Sinha.  Manoj Sinha said, “As per information provided by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), there were 422.19 million broadband subscribers and the internet penetration was 32.86% in the country as on March 31, 2017.”  In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Manoj Sinha said that the National Telecom Policy 2012 envisages 600 million broadband connections by the year 2020.... Read More

NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the Global provider of ICT solutions and NTT Communications India announced that the company will invest over $160 mn (approx. 1K cr) for the expansion of its data centre in India with construction of the Company's two new data centers in Mumbai and Bangalore, through Netmagic, a subsidiary of NTT Com and one of the leading managed hosting and cloud service providers in India and will become operational by April 2018. NTT is committed to enable customers with high-quality infrastructure services as well as the management and security services to meet their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) outsourcing needs. With the increasing demand in cloud services continues ,NTT is gearing up with it’s state of art data centers in Mumbai and Bangalore,which will be accommodating 2,750 racks / 22MW power and 1,500 racks / 15 MW power respectively. With NTT Com’s high-speed, high-volume Internet backbone and network services, custom

As per the news report, Canalys, a market research firm has reported that smartphone market has contracted for the first time in India. The report highlights that shipment of smartphone fell by 4% year-on-year to 27 million units in the country. This drop in the shipment is mainly due to the implementation of GST which took place on July 1,2017.  talking about the impact of GST, Rushabh Doshi, Canalys Analyst said that the entire market is confused over GST and a lack of awareness about the changes that are needed. He also added that the market has adopted a wait-and-see policy as the distributors and retailers are apprehensive about the impact on prices.... Read More

The Narendra Modi Government has decided to scrap the colonial tradition of presenting budget in the month of February.  Come 2019, the budget will be applicable from the first day of the new year. It is expected that the budget for 2019 will be presented latest by November 2018.  This also means that budget of the financial year 2018-2019, which will be presented on February 1, will be applicable only for nine months, up to December.  The government will also start realigning all the economic data with the.... Read More

Pi DATACENTERS has launched “Pi Amaravati”, a Tier IV Certified Data Center at Amaravati, Vijayawada, the capital of newly reorganized state of Andhra Pradesh.  The new facility was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu, at Mangalagiri, Andhra Pradesh, in the presence of the Hon’ble IT Minister, Shri Nara Lokesh, and Kalyan Muppaneni, Founder & CEO, Pi DATACENTERS, top management of Pi DATACENTERS and business leaders of Fortune 500 companies.  At the launch of the Pi Amaravati data center, the company has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with some of the leading public and private enterprises that include PowerGrid, IRCTC, Mahindra & Mahindra Finance, Deutsche Bank, SAR Group, UNIBIC, Yaatra.com, Snap Bizz, Konsole Group, Acute and Net Spider.... Read More

India is a proven market for the growth of digital dominance and social media companies are looking for the next frontier of growth. And nothing looks as good as India’s under-penetrated market-in terms of users, advertising, Internet access, anything at all. India makes perfect sense because it is the only major market in the world where the number of Internet users is growing rapidly. It is also the second largest country in the world in terms of Internet users, ahead of the US and behind China. Google as a pioneer in data acquisition, also offers a unique android platform for developing/customizing locally as per the need of the technology developers and the way you like it. Most importantly, Google wants to bring the Internet to life for everyone in India.  Google is already helping to foster and support India’s engineering talent. The Android Skilling program aims to bring universities and training partners to inspire and educate more than two million developers. With this

As the Indian economy is growing at a very fast rate, two sectors that are seeing tremendous uptrend are the banking sector and e-commerce. We see a huge surge in demand for finance from small-scale and large-scale enterprises alike. Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions are extending loans and advances to individuals and small businesses. There is a huge collection and recovery process that is generally outsourced by most of the banks.  Most of the banks have automated Core Banking functions. Their collection process grossly remains manual, maybe because it is outsourced to collection agencies and they have not been deploying technology because of the rising project expenditure.  At the same time, the B2C e-commerce market in India has exhibited rapid growth and is expected to reach $60 billion by 2017. The online channel is expected to grow at a much faster rate vis-a-vis more established channels and is expected to account for 10.1 per cent of ove

China based Smartphone manufacturer Meizu has announced the launch of its two new devices, PRO 7 and PRO 7 Plus offering dual screens and dual cameras.  Talking about the features, both the devices features AMOLED rear display, the dual rear cameras of both devices come equipped with 12-megapixel Sony IMX386 sensors. The front camera of phones has been upgraded to a 16-megapixel sensor. The four-in-one algorithm of the camera is activated automatically in dark environments, enabling quality pictures even in lowlight environment.  While, The PRO 7 equipped with the Helio P25 processor and 5.2-inch screen display, on other hand the PRO 7 Plus runs on the 10nm Helio X30 processor and features a 5.7-inch screen display. The Meizu PRO 7 comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, coupled with LPDDR4X and eMMC5.1 technology. Meanwhile, the PRO 7 Plus comes with 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM and offers two storage options: 64GB and 128GB, both using UFS2.1.... Read More

LG has brought a revolution in the PC industry with the launch of PC-on Monitor. It is a new concept of integrating a PC and its peripherals in one with all its core functions. It is a real hassle to shop for monitor, PC, keyboard, mouse etc separately but with LG’s PC-on Monitor all the worries have come to an end. Moreover, it is very cost-efficient and wireless.  The PC-on Monitor offers speed in performance and unlike other desktops, it does not occupy space. It is hard to make desktops look neat and organized with all those wires and cables but PC-on Monitor is compact and can be easily installed at the back of monitor, frees up much space that once occupied by desktop.... Read More

mjunction services limited has been appointed by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) to build a platform for them to enable e-bidding, e-evaluation of bids, and e-allocation of oil & gas fields. This platform will aid in transparent allocation of the country’s natural resources, and help the country to reduce its oil import bill by $8 billion annually, as per the Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry officials.  mjunction CEO Vinaya Varma said, “I am happy that in addition to managing e-auction of spectrum for the Government of India, we have also been entrusted with the responsibility of building this platform. We have built up strong competencies in design and conduct of large- value e-auctions, and I want to thank DGH for this nationally important contract.” Read More

According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service, LTE installed base of handsets has crossed 150 million units, only behind China and the USA now and is estimated to surpass the latter in the next one year. In terms of performance during the quarter, smartphone shipments in India grew by modest 4 per cent YoY in Q2 2017. Like China, the top five brands contributed to almost 70 per cent of the total smartphone market. Although the local brands grew during the quarter but are still unable to find their place among the top five smartphone players in the third successive quarter.... Read More

Snapdeal’s board has approved its competitor Flipkart’s revised takeover offer of up to $900 million. The announcement of approval has also brings to an end the long-delayed merger talks that began almost a year ago with Snapdeal sending feelers to Flipkart.  According to the reports, The Snapdeal board will now consult other shareholders, and the deal is likely to formally conclude early next month.  Snapdeal, which posed a challenge to Flipkart’s leadership in its prime, began losing traction after Amazon doubled down on its India expansion plans. Investors’ reluctance to pump more money into the troubled e-tailer decelerated it even more, forcing it to opt for a merger with .... Read More

President Donald Trump in an announcement has revealed that Apple is apparently planning to build three manufacturing plants in the US in a partnership with Foxconn or some other assembly company. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has supposedly promised the president "three big plants - big, big, big," Trump said in a recent news Interview. Apple however declined to comment on the matter. There has been no information on where the plants will be set up or what they will manufacture. But considering that Apple hands off its assembly responsibilities to third parties, and the fact that Foxconn may announce its plans to bring plants to the U.S. as early as this week, it's likely that Apple's plans are in partnership.... Read More

As per the news sources, Vivo India has handed pink slip to its 20 employees of Greater Noida assembling unit which led to a clash between security guards and employees. The news report also mentions that the employees were not given prior notice. They were asked to wrap up their work and leave post lunch.  Over 100 contractual employees gathered at the assembling unit and expressed anger at this mass layoff. This triggered a scuffle between security guards and employees, the situation turned worst with employees ransacking the office and damaging the property. According to the employees, the company did not show any consideration to them.... Read More

Google India has reaffirmed its commitment to digitally empower India’s small and medium businesses. As part of its Digital Unlocked campaign, Google has announced the national winners of SMB Heroes 2017, an initiative aimed at recognizing businesses that have embraced technology to power their growth.  The three businesses that emerged as national winners under each of the categories are: Farida Gupta for Business Impact Through Digital; Shantanu Pathak and Aditya Kulkarni for Impacting Change Through Digital and Arpita Ganesh for Woman Business Leader. These businesses have excelled in innovative use of technology and have leveraged it to address challenges and grow their businesses.... Read More

Microsoft India has announced the launch of Microsoft Kaizala, a mobile-only product designed for large group communications and work management. Microsoft Kaizala makes it simple for organizations to seamlessly communicate, collaborate and complete tasks, bringing together desktop users and mobile-only users who may be within or outside their organizations.  Microsoft India has also announced the launch of its enterprise version, Kaizala Pro that allows organizations to have full administrative control of their groups. It comes with additional features that include user and group management, system integration and automation using Microsoft Kaizala APIs, advanced reporting and analytics, ability to publish custom actions, ability to create public groups, and organizational profile and directory.... Read More

Sundar Pichai, who has been associated with Google for the past two years, has now been appointed as a board member of Alphabet Inc., parent company of Google.  Prior to his appointment, he has served Google as its Chief Executive Officer and now has got another role as Alphabet’s board member. His appointment represents a vote of confidence and trust founders place in him.  “Sundar has been doing a great job as Google’s CEO, driving strong growth, partnerships, and tremendous product innovation,” Larry Page, Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet Inc., said in a statement. “I really enjoy working with him and I’m excited that he is joining the Alphabet board.” Read More

Check Point has announced its product integration of Check Point SandBlast Mobile with Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) to secure mobile devices in the enterprise.  Cyberattacks have evolved beyond the enterprise perimeter, breaching mobile environments; yet only one percent of enterprises have deployed mobile security technologies. The integration of Check Point SandBlast Mobile with Microsoft’s Intune enterprise mobility management (EMM) platform, provides businesses with a comprehensive approach to manage mobile devices and protect against advanced mobile attacks.  Andrew Conway, General Manager for Enterprise Mobility + Security, Microsoft Corp., added, “As attacks continue to become more sophisticated, many customers are looking at how mobile threat defense solutions, such as Check Point, can help them thwart threats on mobile devices. The integration between Check Point and Microsoft Intune will help secure mobile devices from advanced cyberthreats, and

The internet has been a life line of young generation in India, in the era of technology disruption it not only has created tens of millions of market and job opportunities but also a more equal society, providing an opportunity for everyone to enjoy the changes brought about by information and content sharing.  Content sharing is very common with the peers and colleagues , SHAREit, one of the three leading apps in India, has received the most attention from users as well as from the market, and its rapid growth is closely related to the development of India's internet market. In just a few years, SHAREit has featured on Google Play's homepage over 700 times and has gained more than 1 billion users worldwide, of which approximately 300 million are from India, a user base that is greater than 70 percent of India's total internet users, evidencing SHAREit's massive share of the country's content sharing market.... Read More

Persistent Systems has announced acquisition of PARX, a Salesforce Certified Platinum Partner in the DACH market of Germany, Austria and Switzerland that focusses on its customers' business models, strategic and operational objectives. This marks a continuing global expansion for Persistent, which includes the recent openings of development centres in Mexico, Israel and new locations in the U.S. The acquisition of PARX follows last year’s acquisition by Persistent of Australia’s leading Salesforce consulting partner, PRM Cloud Solutions. Persistent is a Salesforce Certified Platinum Partner.  Sudhir Kulkarni, President of Digital at Persistent Systems, says, “PARX is particularly compelling because of its exclusive focus on born-in-the-cloud platforms and technologies with no footprint in legacy technologies or services. Bringing PARX into Persistent deepens our Salesforce expertise, further strengthening our global capabilities to deliver digital transformation for ...” Re

Union Minister for Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Narendra Singh Tomar and ILO Deputy Director General (Policy) ILO, Deborah Greenfield launched the publication and Mobile App for Road Maintenance, “Aarambh”:  The app aims at use of GIS based mapping for making road inventories, condition surveys, and producing cost estimates and other relevant data for preparation and monitoring of annual road maintenance plans.  Its usage would greatly enhance the service delivery of the state level institutions in planning and implementing performance based rural roads maintenance contracts.... Read More

Accelerated computing is quickly gaining traction in the enterprise as businesses embrace these technologies to overcome the limitations of CPUs says IDC.  Accelerated computing is the ability to accelerate applications and workloads by offloading a portion of the processing onto adjacent silicon subsystems such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).  Accelerated computing is gaining traction in the enterprise as businesses seek solutions for overcoming the limitations of central processing units (CPUs) for workloads that require data processing acceleration. Such apps/workloads rely on (single stream) pipeline processing where data locality is important for quick handoffs between various components.... Read More

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has unconditionally approved the merger of the telecommunications businesses of Vodafone India Limited, and its wholly-owned subsidiary Vodafone Mobile Services Limited, with Idea Cellular Limited. The US$23-billion transaction is the largest transaction in terms of value in the history of Indian M&A.  Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. acted for Vodafone India Limited and Vodafone Mobile Services Limited before the CCI.  The telecommunications sector in India is witnessing significant consolidation after the entry of Reliance Jio last year. This merger will allow the parties to invest more significantly in improving coverage and capacity in telecom infrastructure, thereby enabling Vodafone-Idea to offer a better, more innovative and attractive range of services to Indian consumers, fuelling the Digital India initiative of the Government.... Read More

Sanjiv Gupta has taken over as the CEO, National E-Governance Division (NeGD), ministry of electronics and information technology, Govt. Of India. He is at present the additional secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.   Speaking on this new position , he said, "While I am optimistically looking forward to contribute my bit to the vision of Digital India, there's a sense of trepidation due to huge expectations everyone has."He further added, "Having remained associated with IT related assignments throughout the career, it is some kind of home coming for me." Read More

In a bid to gear up the promotional activities pertaining to “Digital India”, the Central Government has allotted e-payment targets to the ministries and states.  Aiming at setting up a cashless economy soon, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced a mammoth target of 25 billion transactions by March 2018, i.e. the end of this financial year. For fulfilling this target in a balanced manner, the government has now allotted targets to specific ministries and states depending on their on-ground reach.  Reportedly, ministries with higher social and physical reach have been entitled to higher responsibilities as per the decision.... Read More

Domestic handset vendors like Huawei, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi have captured around 87% of Chinese smartphone market in Q2, 2017 according to a study by Counterpoint.  The smartphones shipments in China grew a modest 3% annually during Q2 2017, registering second consecutive quarter of annual growth this year.  Commenting on the results, James Yan, Research Director, Counterpoint said, “June seasonally is a strong month for China as it is usually buoyed by portfolio upgrades from major brands such as Oppo, vivo and Xiaomi. The top four Chinese brands now capture close to 69% of the market as these brands have raced ahead of international and other local brands with expansive distribution reach and exciting portfolio.” Read More

The total IT spending by small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) will exceed $676 billion in 2021 according to IDC report. "SMB IT spending growth continues to track about two percentage points higher than GDP growth across regions. But beneath that slowly rising tide are faster moving currents that reflect the changing ways SMBs are acquiring and deploying technology," said Ray Boggs, Vice President, SMB Research, IDC. Boggs noted that while SMBs, especially smaller ones, have immediate tactical needs to sharpen performance, they are also looking to coordinate resources in a meaningful way. For many this will be an important step towards Digital Transformation (DX).... Read More

The Reliance Jio chief, Mukesh Ambani in the company’s AGM has announced the launch of JioPhone that will be effectively free for Jio customers. However the user has to pay a Rs. 1,500 deposit which is fully refundable after three years.  The JioPhone was launched by Akash and Isha Ambani.  The phone will be available from August 15 for testing in beta, and pre-booking will start from August 24. The users will be able to buy the phone from September on a first come first serve basis. The phone will come with few different data packs.  Users can either pay Rs. 153 per month, for which they will get free voice and SMS, and unlimited data, along with Jio apps, or they can pay Rs. 309 per month, to get all this, plus the support for mirroring your screen on a TV, via a cable that can even be plugged into CRT TVs. After three years, you can return the phone, and get a full refund on the deposit.... Read More

Infor has announced a new integration of Infor Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. According to the company, LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Infor CRM can provide users with deep relational data across all applicable devices in real time. This integration is designed to deliver new tools to assist sales professionals in discovering the best ways to get introduced through “TeamLink”, identify new contacts with contextual lead recommendations, be alerted to job and company changes, and “Icebreakers” which can be great relationship selling tools that show shared connections, experiences, and interests, plus a link to a lead’s recent activity stream.  Infor CRM can provide a complete view of applicable customer touch points across sales, marketing, customer service, and support teams, and can help organizations maximize the impact of interactions across the entire customer lifecycle. Designed and built with sales professionals in mind, LinkedIn Sa

Adobe Systems has elevated Shanmugh Natarajan as Managing Director for Adobe Systems in India. Natarajan was formerly Executive Director, and will continue to lead Adobe operations in India, in addition to his ongoing responsibility as Vice-President, Engineering, Digital Media at Adobe. Donna Morris, Executive Vice-President, Customer & Employee Experience, Adobe, said, “Shanmugh Natarajan provides leadership across our teams in India, which contribute to the strength of our employment brand and advancing Adobe’s position as a sought-after place to work. With an employee base that represents virtually every Adobe function, India continues to be a vital component of our growth.” Shanmugh Natarajan joined Adobe in 2008 and has been instrumental in leading product development. His leadership has contributed to the development of many mobile and web products for Adobe Creative Cloud. Adobe operations in India have seen significant growth during his stretch as Executive Director

Reliance Group’s Unlimit today announced a strategic alliance with Fibocom to bring contemporary wireless communications modules and solutions for IoT and mobile Internet.  The partnership will be dedicated to design and manufacture wireless modules and provide IoT solutions to enable secure communications among machines, equipment, vehicles and assets over wireless networks. It will also bring in a unique competence in combining 2G, 3G and 4G wireless modules with positioning technology, service delivery platforms for M2M applications and device management platforms in a trusted environment.  The partnership is in alignment with the ‘Digital India’ plan, which is focused on creating citizen-shared infrastructure, management and services on demand, as also data authority for each Indian citizen.... Read More

Embrace India has entered wearable segment with heart rate monitor AFB-11 Flexi Fit.  Flexi Fit connects with iOS and Android smartphones using Bluetooth and also is water resistant with IP67 rating and dust proof. The device also syncs the smartphone notifications like incoming calls, text messages, email alerts thereby eliminating the need for multiple gadgets.  Backed with 60 maH Li-Po battery, Flexi Fit via its Pedometer feature tracks healthy steps, distance and calories burned. It also monitors your sleep cycles, tracks sleep stages & understand the heart rate levels during strenuous physical activities.... Read More

Ram Nath Kovind has been elected as the next President of India. The government-backed candidate won two-third of the votes cast by an electoral college of MPs and state lawmakers. Kovind, 71, will be sworn in on July 25. Flowers and extra security had arrived at the former Bihar governor's home in Delhi long before the official announcement and sweets were passed around at his hometown in Uttar Pradesh. "It is a great responsibility, my job will be to uphold and protect the Constitution. My election to this post is a sign of the greatness of India's democracy," Kovind said after the results.... Read More

ALE, operating under the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise brand, is working with PGi, the world’s largest dedicated provider of collaboration solutions, to deliver integrated high-definition (HD) audio conferencing for its collaborative communications platform, Rainbow.  A recent study conducted by Wainhouse Research showed almost 70% of organizations will use more conferencing this year. More businesses are adopting cloud collaborative communication tools like Rainbow, and with the integration of GlobalMeet audio, Rainbow can help businesses maximize the value of their UC investment, offering more numbers, more countries and toll-free access.  Together, Rainbow, powered by PGi’s high quality audio engine delivers secure, clear voice communication to every Rainbow meeting with flexible pricing.... Read More

Edimax Technology has entered into strategic distribution partnership with Link Telecom Pvt. Ltd, who has been appointed to distribute Edimax's Consumer, SMB & Enterprise (Edimax Pro) portfolio. Edimax clearly focusses on expanding its distribution in various parts of the country and create widest reach to its consumers. Commenting on the new partnership, Sanjay Joshi, Country Manager (India & Subcontinent), Edimax, said, "We are confident that Link will bring value to Edimax business overall and help nurture in SMB, Enterprise segment as well to help growing consumer portfolio. Link team has good market reach in different geographies which will definitely leverage Edimax portfolio. Partnering with established and professional distributor like ‘Link Telecom’ is part of our strategy to seize new business opportunities and tap untapped channel." Read More

SAP has shown double digit growth in the second quarter thanks to cloud and software revenue. "This strong quarter is the latest in SAP's 8-year run of consistent, profitable growth. Our winning strategy is again validated by fast adoption of S/4HANA and our full portfolio of cloud solutions. We expect continuing momentum in the second half and confidently raise our guidance for the full year. SAP has never been better positioned,” Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP. “Our fantastic momentum continued with double-digit growth in total revenue. Our cloud and software revenue growth rate in the first half of the year is at the upper end of our full-year guidance range. Based on our strong growth and cash generation we are pleased to share SAP’s success with our shareholders by initiating a share buyback of up to €500 million in the second half,” Luka Mucic, CFO, SAP.... Read More

The Microsoft Inspire, organized by the Microsoft take place from 9th to 13th July 2017 in Washington D.C. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Among the keynote speakers: CEO Satya Nadella; Microsoft President Brad Smith; Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group; and Judson Althoff, Microsoft executive vice president, Worldwide Commercial Business. Addressing 17,000 Partners from 140 countries gathered in the INSPIRE conference and it is an ideal conference for business and channel leaders in SMB, Corporate Accounts and Enterprise markets and more. The big idea that came out of this year’s conference was the crystallization of Microsoft’s overall strategy. It’s been a huge year of change for Microsoft as they’ve realigned their product stack and strategy for moving to cloud-based business solutions. Microsoft Remains A Partner-Focused Company, with an unprecedented opportunity, and mission is to empower every person and

Microsoft had huge success with Azure (cloud computing platform). Now Microsoft is taking steps to move Azure into hybrid cloud environments with the announcement of the general availability of Azure Stack, an extension of Azure. Microsoft's hardware partners, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell EMC and Lenovo, will ship Azure Stack with their hardware systems. Microsoft is pricing Azure Stack using pay-as-you-go use and capacity-based models.... Read More

Seventy-five per cent of marketers chose Instagram as their most preferred channel for sharing image-based content, while Twitter and Facebook garnered brand approval ratings of 63% and 56%, respectively for the same. Twitter, on the other hand, leads the charts when it comes to B2B marketing, garnering 47% marketer acceptance in the non-conventional B2B channel distribution. These insights are amongst several interesting marketing facts and figures released by Pulp Strategy – a multi-award-winning full service agency in the realm of experiential, digital, and interactive marketing – in its “The Future of Content 2017 – Chartbuster Trends in Content Marketing” report. The Pulp Strategy report also mapped several other interesting trends for marketers. User-generated content was found to enjoy greater approval with social media users, with 76% of users surveyed considering it more trustworthy than brand-generated content. Image-based content generated the highest engagement

Sandeep Nagpal, who was with SAP earlier, has joined Cvent as its Vice President and Head of Marketing.  In his previous stint, Sandeep had served at SAP as the Head of SME & Partner Marketing (VP), APAC & Japan. In this role, Sandeep was responsible for overseeing SAP's Partner, Ecosystem & Volume Business Marketing Strategy. It also included gaining market share for SAP, increasing the SAP brand affinity and purchase consideration among the small & mid market (SME) segment across APJ. He also managed strategic alliances, VARs & Ecosystem partners marketing programs including affiliate & influencer marketing, rebate/incentive programs and communications. He also held the position of Senior Director Marketing when he first joined SAP in 2010.... Read More

Bridge Data Centres, a Bain Capital investee company, today announced its plan to invest $400 to 500 million in the India market over the next two years. The company is also in advanced stages of acquisition in other markets in Asia Pacific with a further $220 - 250 million of investment. Bridge Data Centre is founded by industry veterans - Michael Foust and Kris Kumar in partnership with Bain Capital to satisfy the wave of demand being generated, through the creation of reliable and scalable infrastructure and operations across the region. Bridge Data Centres plans to set up a greenfield facility in Mumbai and other key markets, and invest in acquisitions if they fit the company's vision.... Read More

Samsung Electronics today announced it has installed its first ever commercial Cinema LED Screen at Lotte Cinema World Tower in Korea. Designed as a High Dynamic Range (HDR) LED theater display, the Cinema LED Screen creates a more captivating and vibrant viewing experience through next generation picture and true-to-life audio thanks to collaboration between HARMAN Professional Solutions and Samsung Audio Lab. “Through sharper and more realistic colors, complementary audio and an elevated presentation, our Cinema LED Screen makes viewers feel as if they are part of the picture,” said HS Kim, President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “We are excited to partner with Lotte Cinema to bring this technology to theater-goers, and look forward to continuing to shape the cinema of the future.” Read More

XOLO has launched Era 1X Pro, a high-performance smartphone. The handset comes loaded with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal memory which is expandable up to 32 GB, making it the most favourable choice for consumers who are looking for a smooth multitasking phone in this price segment. To enhance the user’s experience, XOLO has done a seamless integration of hardware and software in this phone. It exhibits a premium design with a 5” HD Ultra bright display screen with a luminosity of 400 and 16.7 million colours, designed for an enhanced viewing experience. Also, the phone comes loaded with a memory combination of 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM which allows consumers ample space to store up to 4,000 images, 350 videos and 2,000 audio files in the smartphone. In terms of camera combination, Era 1X Pro is equipped with 8MP primary and 5MP front camera with Dual LED flash and comes with a new refreshed camera user interface called Pro mode which helps users to change the settings at the camera scre

Yerha.com has announced the launch of smallest GSM phone, Elari NanoPhone C for smartphone users who wish to maintain an active lifestyle and digital detox. NanoC is a fully functional weighs 30g features a bright colourful TFT display, 32GB microSD and microSIM card slots, MP3 player, voice recorder, FM radio and alarm. NanoC is Equipped with a headphone jack, microUSB port for charging/data transferring, a battery life of up to 4 days in standby mode and up to 4 hours of talk-timе It can be paired with any smartphone, including iPhone and Android smartphones via Bluetooth to make or receive calls with less risk to users health, as the BT module emits much lower radiation than the smartphone antenna. Users can copy up to 1,000 contacts from their smartphone to Nano C with a single click.... Read More

ASUS has launched ZenFone AR Tango-enabled and Google's Daydream platform-ready Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality smartphone.  Runing on the latest 7.0 ‘Nougat, ZenFone AR is equipped with 8GB RAM, 128GB internal Storage and also supports expandable storage. It is built with powerful components, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 CPU that has been specially optimized for Tango and Daydream.  Featuring a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor that is optimized for the demanding, real-time computing requirements of Tango, ZenFone AR's TriCam system work in conjunction with Tango technology to enable smooth and compelling smartphone AR experiences.... Read More

India leads spam calls lists for 2017 followed by the United States and Brazil with Indian users receiving 22.6 spam calls per month. India leads the table with the average Truecaller user receiving 22.6 spam calls per month. Tying in for second place is the United States and Brazil with an estimated 20.7 calls per user each month. Operator, debt collection, bank, political, health, spam, telemarketing, financial service, scam and insurance are common categories that tie all these spam calls together. In India’s spam call issue lies with operators and financial services. Many of these operators are seeking to provide special offers for free data or unlimited calls.... Read More

Infosys Q1 2017 net profit has grown by 1.4% to reach Rs, 3,483 crore. The company's operating profit was Rs. 4,111 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 showing a QoQ decline of 2.4% and YoY growth of 1.6%. Revenue for the quarter was Rs. 17,078 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 showing a QoQ decline of 0.2% and YoY growth of 1.8%. “Our persistent focus on execution in Q1 is reflected in broad-based performance on multiple fronts– revenue growth, resilient margins despite multiple headwinds, healthy cash generation and overall business results. I am encouraged by the uptick in revenue per employee for six quarters in a row, and the strong momentum in our new high growth services and software, as we accelerate our focus on innovation-led growth,” said Dr. Vishal Sikka, CEO.... Read More

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.5 trillion in 2017, a 2.4 percent increase from 2016, according to Gartner. "Digital business is having a profound effect on the way business is done and how it is supported," said John-David Lovelock, vice president and distinguished analyst, Gartner. "The impact of digital business is giving rise to new categories; for example, the convergence of "software plus services plus intellectual property," added Lovelock.   Industry-specific disruptive technologies include the Internet of Things (IoT) in manufacturing, blockchain in financial services (and other industries), and smart machines in retail. The focus is on how technology is disrupting and enabling business.... Read More

Teradata has announced acquisition of StackIQ. The deal will leverage StackIQ’s expertise in open-source software and large cluster provisioning to simplify and automate the deployment of Teradata Everywhere.  The acquisition also includes StackIQ’s team of engineers, who will join Teradata’s R&D organization to help accelerate the company’s ability to automate software deployment in operations, engineering and end-user customer ecosystems.  “Teradata prides itself on building and investing in solutions that makes life easier for our customers. Only the best, most innovative and applicable technology is added to our ecosystem, and StackIQ delivers with products that excel in their field. Adding StackIQ technology to IntelliFlex, IntelliBase and IntelliCloud will strengthen our capabilities and enable Teradata to redefine how systems are deployed and managed globally,” said Oliver Ratzesberger, Executive Vice-President and Chief Product Officer, Teradata.... Read More

As a part of it reorganization of its business model to focus on selling cloud computing infrastructure and services under the Azure brand, Microsoft is cutting around ten percent of its global sales force.  In an official statement last week the company said, "Microsoft is implementing changes to better serve our customers and partners. Today, we are taking steps to notify some employees that their jobs are under consideration or that their positions will be eliminated.”  "Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time-to-time, re-deployment in others." Read More