VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

Vodafone has launched its Vodafone SuperNet 4G service in Maharashtra. Vodafone SuperNet 4G was launched in Nagpur by Shri Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Hon’ble Minister of Energy and Excise, Government of Maharashtra and the Guardian Minister of Nagpur, and will be made available in several more towns and cities across the state by March 2017. Built on the efficient 2,100 MHz band, this state-of-the-art network will enable Vodafone SuperNet 4G customers to access internet via mobile with speeds across a range of smart devices, including Mi-Fi and dongles. Vodafone 4G services can be readily accessed from 4G-enabled handsets, offered by leading smartphone manufacturers and available across the country... Read More

Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon'ble Minister of Electronics and IT & Law & Justice, Government of India, has urged the public- and private-sector banks to promote adoption of digital payments as part of the Government of India's "Digi Dhan Abhiyan". In line with the priority of the Government of India to promote Digital Payment transactions, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has taken a number of initiatives not only to offer better products in terms of technology and user-friendliness but also to inform, educate and enable citizens in the country on digital transactions.  In this context, Union Minister of Electronics and IT and Law & Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad met with the senior representatives of the public- and private-sector banks and other key departments... Read More

Reliance Jio has signed strategic partnership with Niantic - publisher and developer of Pokemon Go.  With this partnership, thousands of Reliance Digital Stores and select partner premises in India will appear as 'PokeStops' or 'Gyms' in the Pokemon Go game beginning December 14, 2016. This launch is in line with Jio’s mission to empower Indians with opportunities that are fuelled by the power of data and a Digital Life and to delight them on an ongoing basis with entertainment-based apps, such as ‘Pokemon Go,’ the leading app in the gaming category... ReadMore

To help parents get the most out of their experience and help their child navigate their experience, Facebook has launched the Parent’s Portal in collaboration with parents, teens and safety experts around the world.  Facebook recently updated its Safety Center and Bullying Prevention Hub and introduced a Parent's Portal, which provides parent specific advice as part of the Safety Center. Facebook's Parent's Portal includes guides for parents about how Facebook works, tips for talking with your kids about staying safe online and resources from experts around the world. It includes guides for parents about how Facebook works, tips for talking with your kids about staying safe online and resources from experts around the world.... Read More  

Vodafone India has announced the launch of Vodafone M-Pesa PAY, an easy and ready to use digital payment solution to enable merchants and retailers to receive payments from their customers without any exchange of cash.  To start using this digital payment solution, retailers and merchants simply have to download Vodafone M-Pesa app and register for Vodafone M-Pesa PAY as a merchant. Once registered, they can notify individual customer to make the payment due. Customers just need to click on the notification and make payment digitally using their M-Pesa wallet, bank account and debit or credit card.... Read More  

Under this arrangement, Gooee will be the first "full stack operating platform" providing Bajaj Electricals a service driven framework to deliver IoT applications to their discerning customers. IoT refers to the connection of devices other than computers and smartphones to the internet. "Intelligent lighting is emerging as the next big thing for new age electrical solution companies across the globe. LaaS (Lighting as a Service) is gaining momentum and we at Bajaj Electricals see a huge ‘Technology Convergence’, with rapid technology evolution in every field. The IoT and mobile integration with lighting fixtures being the sensing point, we can create spaces which are personalized and still open. This will help in better management of space, comfort and ensuring energy efficiency at each step," says R Sundararajan, executive president & country head, Luminaires Business Unit, Bajaj Electricals... Read More

Vodafone India, one of India’s leading telecommunication service providers, is offering gaming enthusiasts a new destination Vodafone U Game-a-Thon, as part of the first ever 15-day online gaming fest in the country. Available on Google Play Store, the gaming extravaganza kicked off on December 1, and includes several gaming categories including sports, simulation, puzzles, among others.            Gaming has a huge Indian following. 71 per cent smartphones users play mobile games on a regular basis and it is the second highest engaging category after chat apps. It is a growing trend amongst youth in India... Read More

Arrow Electronics has joined hands with Vodafone, a global market leader for cellular network services and managed internet of things (IoT) connectivity to market Vodafone's IoT services as part of its eVolve IoT offering.   Vodafone's solutions and services expand and enhance Arrow's go-to-market strategy in the fast-growing market segments within IoT. Arrow's extensive IoT technology solutions stack and professional services are now complemented with differentiated network services from a global leader.   The combination of Arrow and Vodafone solutions creates a compelling offering with global network coverage, wireless and embedded edge technology, system integration, data platform and cloud integration, enterprise computing, IoT edge device connectivity and application enablement for millions of connected devices.... Read More  

Cloudera brings various value-added services (VAS) for four key important sectors that include financial, telecom, health and cybersecurity. By seeing the growing concern on the cybersecurity across the globe, Cloudera works with more than 180 leading global financial organizations, including Allstate, Bank of Mandiri, DBS Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Credit Suisse to realize business value in the areas like customer Insights, Fraud Detection, Cybersecurity, Risk and Compliance. In an exclusive interaction with VARINDIA, Amr Awadllah, Founder, CTO, Cloudera, said that financial institutions have many challenges to overcome as they move to embrace digital transformation, including customer journeys, fragmentation, security, privacy and data quality. Cloudera brings its enterprise data hub from financial firms that need to address these complex business challenges and enable faster and more accurate analysis while adhering to regulations and requisite security a...

Ricoh has introduced a Printer-as-a-Service platform (PaaS). The lineup consists of two models - SP 313 SFNW_V, Printer, Copier, Scanner & Fax and SP 313DNW_V, Printer.  The PaaS platform developed exclusively ensures the machine uptime is maximized through real-time monitoring of machine status and proactively taking care of maintenance requirements.  Through this platform, one can pay a fixed cost per print irrespective of coverage area, bringing in predictability in print costs and ensuring complete transparency in usage.... Read More  

Dell EMC has integrated PowerEdge servers with its hyper-converged infrastructure portfolio. This move by Dell EMC will help customers move forward by incorporating the technology they want and need to become more agile, flexible and competitive. Customers opting for Dell EMC VxRail Appliances will now benefit from the performance and reliability of PowerEdge servers with the latest Intel Broadwell platforms and a new 3-node entry for a lower starting point. New addressable use-cases include: Storage heavy workloads including Big Data Analytics and Microsoft Exchange can take advantage of high-capacity VxRail nodes... Read More

Microsoft Accelerator is built to empower start-ups and Wipro has entered into a partnership that will provide start-ups with greater opportunities to innovate and grow their business. This announcement was made at the accelerator’s flagship event – Think Next 2016 that brings together thought leaders who are driving transformation via innovation. Think Next 2016 also marked the graduation of 13 start-ups from its ninth cohort. This partnership is part of Microsoft Accelerator #CoInnovate program which provides start-ups with more go-to-market (GTM) opportunities by working with enterprise businesses. Wipro will also refer select start-ups for Microsoft Accelerator programs and events. Under the partnership, referred start-ups will gain access to Wipro Open Innovation initiatives, such as:  *             Global GTM reach to rapidly build scale *             An opportun...

TeamIndus, a space technology enterprise, is pleased to announce commercial launch contract with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for its historic mission to land a spacecraft on the Moon as part of its bid to win the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The TeamIndus Spacecraft has been designed and developed in Bangalore by a 100-person engineering team including 20 retired ISRO scientists. In a launch window starting on the 28th of December, 2017, the PSLV will inject the spacecraft into an orbit 880 km x 70,000 km around the Earth. The Spacecraft will then undertake a 21 day journey to soft land in Mare Imbrium, a region in the North-Western hemisphere of the Moon. After landing in Mare Imbrium, the Spacecraft will deploy all its payload including the TeamIndus Rover that will traverse 500 meters on the Moon’s surface in order to accomplish its Google Lunar XPRIZE objectives... Read More

S AP SE has announced the launch of the SAP Digital Boardroom in India. The SAP Digital Boardroom is a planned breakthrough digital approach that aims to contextualize and simplify performance reporting across areas of business in real time. Built on the SAP BusinessObjects Cloud solution, SAP Digital Boardroom is expected to utilize line-of-business data from the SAP S/4HANA suite and SAP HANA Cloud Platform to provide a single source of truth about a company’s critical business metrics. This approach aims to help companies monitor and drive a change in the digital economy. "Technology is changing the rules of business and disruption is becoming the norm. As business leaders, we need to absorb, understand and adapt with agility and speed to constantly changing circumstances,” said Deb Deep Sengupta, President & Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent. “The SAP Digital Boardroom will enable an interactive board discussion, and give decision – makers ...

Airtel Payments Bank today announced that customers will get free Airtel talktime for every rupee deposited.  Any customer opening a savings account with Airtel Payments Bank, will get one minute of talk time on his/her Airtel mobile for every Rupee deposited. For e.g. if a customer opens an account with a deposit of Rs 1,000 then he/she will get 1,000 minutes of free talk time on his/her Airtel mobile number. The talk time can be used for calling all over India and this benefit is applicable on first time deposits only. Airtel Payments Bank has rolled out pilot services in Rajasthan with the objective of testing its systems and processes ahead of full scale pan-India launch. Customers in towns and villages across Rajasthan will now be able to open bank accounts at Airtel retail outlets, which will also act as Airtel banking points and offer a range of basic, convenient banking services. Airtel Payments Bank will commence the pilot with banking poin...

SAP SE has pledged an initiative to touch one billion lives in the Asia-Pacific Japan (APJ) region by the year 2020. As part of this employee-led, crowdsourced initiative, SAP India has adopted the cause of bettering cancer research in the country. To mark the occasion of completing 20 years in the country, SAP India has announced their collaboration with the Ramesh Nimmagadda Cancer Foundation (RNCF), an NGO focussed on cancer data research. RNCF provides its custom-made data collection software OncoCollect, to institutions across India and also assists them with resources such as hardware and manpower. “At SAP, everything we do is guided by our vision to help the world run better and improve people’s lives,” said Deb Deep Sengupta, President & Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent. “Together with RNCF, we aim to speed up data collection and analysis for better cancer treatment for patients in India and make a significant social i...

Emerson Network Power today announced the appointment of Rob Johnson as CEO and officially commenced a campaign to rebrand the standalone company as Vertiv. Vertiv is a global provider of mission-critical infrastructure technologies for vital applications in data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments. The company, which is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio has more than 20,000 employees and more than 25 manufacturing and assembly facilities worldwide. Platinum Equity acquired the business today from Emerson in a transaction valued in excess of $4 billion and Emerson has also retained a minority interest in the company. Johnson, most recently an operating partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, spent 10 years at American Power Conversion (APC), a leader in data center infrastructure.  He was president and CEO of APC when the company was sold to Schneider Electric for $6.1 billion in 2007.  While at APC he al...

Lava International is betting big on the growing demand for VoLTE (Voice over Long Term Evolution) enabled devices by offering VoLTE on 77 per cent of its smartphones. The company has 17 VoLTE handsets out of 22 4G smartphones offered to end consumers and has gained a leading position amongst the Indian handset vendors having maximum number of VoLTE enabled smartphones. Lava with its vision to make reliable technologies accessible, has introduced VoLTE on all its recently launched smartphones. Further, all Lava smartphones which were launched even 9-12 months back will be upgraded to VoLTE in a few months’ time.... Read More

Nokia and UAE-based telecommunications service provider du, used Nokia AirScale Radio Access to showcase 360 degree virtual reality (VR) video streaming for the first time in the Middle East at GITEX 2016 in Dubai. In the demonstration, 3D 360 VR content created with the Nokia OZO VR camera was streamed to head-mounted displays using Nokia 5G-ready network , delivering a fully immersive VR experience for attendees. This demonstration is yet another milestone for du on its path to 5G technology and taking 5G beyond speed and connectivity by demonstrating real 5G use cases. The demonstration at GITEX 2016 used the 5G-ready Nokia AirScale Radio Access on the 4.5 GHz frequency. Using a large bandwidth of 400 MHz and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology, which utilizes multiple antennas to transmit and receive, Nokia AirScale can offer enhanced capacity and speeds. This enables du to offer a superior broadband experience to end users.... Read More

Qualcomm  has filed a patent infringement complaint against Meizu in the United States, Germany and France. These actions include filing a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), filing a patent infringement action in Germany with the Mannheim Regional Court and initiating an infringement-seizure action in France to obtain evidence for a possible future infringement action there. Previously, in June 2016, it filed multiple actions against Meizu in China related to licensing terms and patent infringement.... Read More

As per Guidelines on Implementation of E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016, the E-waste collection target for FY2022-23 would be 70 per cent of E-waste generation. Initially, E-waste collection target for the financial year 2016-17 would be 15 per cent of the estimated E-waste generation, and for the year 2017-18, the collection target would be 30 per cent. These targets would increase to 40 per cent for next 2 financial years between 2018-20, 50 per cent for the financial years between 2020-22 and 70 per cent of the estimated E-waste generation for the financial years 2022 – 2023 onwards. Estimation of target for collection shall be based on estimated generation calculated for each EEE ( Estimated E-waste Generation ) code for a specific financial year as specified in the table below.... Read More

TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity company along with Facebook, Google, and PLDC (Pacific Light Data Communication), today announced that they will co-build the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN). PLCN is a 12,800 km transpacific submarine cable system that will provide the first direct undersea route between Hong Kong and Los Angeles, California (USA) with ultra-high capacity transmission. Scheduled for commercial launch in summer of 2018, PLCN will include TE SubCom’s C+L technology, a major step forward in available cable transmission capacity that effectively doubles the available bandwidth and capacity per fiber pair over a traditional C-band-only designed system. Once completed, PLCN will be the highest-capacity transpacific route. “PLCN submarine cable will be among the lowest-latency fiber optic routes between Hong Kong and the US and the first to connect directly using ultra-high-capacity transmission,” said Wei Junkang, chairman, PLDC.... Read More

ZOPO Mobile  has announced 1 year replacement warranty on all its smartphones from the date of purchase. The scheme is applicable on all of ZOPO’s smartphone models purchased on or after 1st October, 2016 under specific terms and conditions. Recognized for its focus on delivering excellent products and ensuring superior customer service, ZOPO Mobiles’ latest scheme will enable customers to replace their faulty devices with a new one within 4-5 days, putting any of their concerns or apprehensions to rest. Commenting on the scheme, Kevin Xu, founder, ZOPO Mobile said, “We design and develop new features, schemes, etc. everyday just to meet and serve the customer’s need. Similarly, with our latest 1 year replacement warranty scheme, we wish to upgrade our customer service approach, and help maintain our position as a brand that is built on customer satisfaction.” Read More

Jivi Mobiles – the mobile division of Magicon Impex has signed up actor Irrfan Khan as its brand ambassador. Irrfan Khan will feature in the upcoming campaigns – both offline and online for the brand and will endorse Jivi Mobile’s products. He will also be a part of various customer engagement activities that the brand has planned during the year. The association will primarily promote the expansion of Jivi’s innovative product range. Pankaj Anand, CEO, Jivi Mobiles said, “It’s an absolute pleasure to announce Jivi Mobiles’ association with Irrfan Khan. We believe by roping in Irrfan Khan, we will make our customers feel more comfortable and reassured about the brand Jivi Mobiles. Our plan is to have a long association with Mr. Khan and make him the face of all our forthcoming brand campaigns.” Since its inception, Jivi Mobiles has been people’s brand serving millions of customers with innovative products range offering unique feature which enhances day to ...

Indus OS  – the world’s first regional operating system today announced its partnership with Jaina Group, the brand owners of Karbonn Mobiles . This partnership will be an add-on to the existing partnership with Micromax, and two homegrown brands Celkon and Swipe. Rakesh Deshmukh, co-founder & CEO, Indus OS , said, “Our partnership with Karbonn is a testimony that smartphone brands are recognizing the need for a regional language smartphone ecosystem in India. It is a young homegrown brand, differentiated by its efforts to create a simplistic experience for the Indian users, much like us.” Shashin Devsare, executive director, Karbonn Mobiles & Jaina Group , said, “As per IAMAI, the regional language user base in India grew 47 per cent and touched 127 million in June 2015. The growing consumption of regional language content on mobile phones is a clear indicator of the need for localizing smartphone ecosystem for bridging the gap. Recognizing the e...

ZOPO has announced its next seasonal giveaway – the “ZOPO Looton Month”. The contest will go live from 30th September, 2016, and will last for the entire month. The contest, which will commence on ZOPO India’s official Facebook page, will include several offers for each week of the month. In the First Week, winners will get merchandise giveaway like – exclusive ZOPO bottles, caps, bags, key chains, t-shirts, batches, wrist bands, and much more. The second week offers will include – ADCOM Power banks, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, etc, while in the third week, people stand a chance to win ZOPO smartphones. The Bumper prize will be announced in the fourth week wherein 3 lucky winners, get to win an exclusive trip to Singapore, a Bike and a Car.... Read More

Reaffirming its commitment to India, Huawei will start to manufacture smartphones in India in collaboration with the leading Sketch-to-Scale solutions provider, Flex, in October. Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Union Minister, Information & Technology, Law and Justice, made the announcement at Huawei’s “Make in India” inauguration ceremony in the Indian capital, New Delhi. Starting from first week of October 2016, the Flex manufacturing plant in Chennai will manufacture one of the Honor smartphones models. The plant will have the capacity to make three million units by the end of 2017. In addition, Huawei will be strengthening its after-sales services in India with over 200 service centers, including more than 30 exclusive Huawei service centers in .... Read More

Dell has announced the launch of the latest addition to its flagship Latitude portfolio, the Dell Latitude 3379 convertible laptop . The device which is built for business on-the-go, offers 4 modes for the user, delivering power-packed performance combined with versatile design and functionality for a great business computing experience. Dell Latitude 3379 convertible laptop is powered by Intel Core processors, supported by Integrated Intel HD Graphics Card, up to 512GB Solid-State Memory coupled with a brilliant FHD touch display with wide angle viewing. Indrajit Belgundi, General Manager, End User Computing, Dell India , said, “Our flagship Latitude series has created a niche for itself in the business community and our efforts are focussed on providing superior design along with the assurance of business-class computing to our users. The new range of devices are an amalgamation of secure and manageable performance with flexibility, allowing the user to access...

NetApp has announced new NetApp ONTAP software , flash systems and expanded public cloud support that provide the modern foundation to help customers maximize the value of their data in the hybrid cloud. The new offerings are key to helping customers transform their IT. Successful IT transformations integrate data silos, automate processes to speed results and remove barriers to scale that limit growth. The announcement includes: An update to NetApp ONTAP 9 software , making the company’s rich data services offering even better with built-in encryption for improved data security, support for massively scalable high-performance NAS containers and simplified provisioning for enterprise applications. Six new flash-optimized storage arrays, including the unified all-flash systems and highly scalable hybrid flash arrays, with simpler set-up and serviceability.... Read More

SUSE has appointed Exuberant Support for Data Services (ESDS) , a Nashik-based cloud hosting firm, as its first Indian Cloud Service Partner. SUSE is the first open-source company to sign up with an Indian cloud service provider to offer hosted services in the market. Both companies will collaborate to offer an extensive computing environment for enterprises to run their business-critical applications and workloads. Rajarshi Bhattacharyya, Country Head, SUSE, India , says, “We are very excited to have an Indian cloud service provider to cater to our customer base in the local market. This is part of our efforts to encourage entrepreneurs in the country to build highly competitive products locally and support Make in India .” SUSE’s CSP partner ecosystem so far consists of only the global cloud giants like Amazon, Azure, Rackspace and Verizon... Read More

Coolpad has launched the ‘Coolpad Note 5’, a successor to the note series sporting an elegant design, intelligent technology and disruptive price. The smartphone will be exclusively available on Amazon.in at a price of Rs 10,999 and will be available in variants of royal gold, space grey via open sale from 18th October 2016. The company also announced that it aims to sell over 4 million Coolpad phones in India by next two quarters. After the success of its offline pilot project in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, Coolpad will be expanding its presence in 13 cities over the next three months. Coolpad Note 5 features a 5.5 inch display FHD resolution of 1920 x 1080 with 78 per cent (screen-to-body ratio). The phone is loaded with a 4 GB RAM along with a Qualcomm SD 617 Octacore processor and comes with 32 GB of internal storage -expandable to 64 GB... Read More

iBall has launched another star performer to its Andi Series with ‘iBall Andi Wink 4G’ designed to meet the ever growing needs of todays generation. The 5 inch IPS FWVGA display 4G smartphone lets you enjoy images, gaming and video. With its easy capacitive multi-touch display you can now switch between home-screen and different applications, with soothing graphics and tender transitions effortlessly. The new generation phone sports the powerful Quad Core processor and Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS, delivering the optimum balance of performance and power. With 2GB RAM and 16 GB built-in storage which is expandable upto 32 GB with the Micro-SD card, the smartphone brings more space for all your photos, videos and music.... Read More

SAP today announced investment plans of €2 billion over five years to help business and government entities benefit from the proliferation of sensors, smart devices and Big Data that is transforming business with the Internet of Things (IoT). SAP plans to accelerate innovation in its IoT solution portfolio, increase sales and marketing, scale service, support and co-innovation, and grow its ecosystem of partners and startups in the IoT market, which is estimated to reach €250 billion by 2020. “With billions of connected devices, we now have the potential to reshape society, the economy and the environment,” said Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP. “SAP HANA is the data platform we knew would unlock the Internet of Things. Today SAP is making another bold investment to help our customers seize the benefits of live business. Only SAP empowers businesses to innovate from the core to the edges to the network,” added McDermott.... Read More

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) conferred Reliance Jio with a special award for HR Impact in People Practices . This was in recognition for Reliance Jio creating and launching Jio services across 18,000 cities and towns and more than 200,000 villages through a network of 1,215 offices and a formidable team of over 60,000 employees across India. As one of India’s youngest start-ups, the average age at Reliance Jio is 30 years, making Reliance Jio an organisation of the young, by the young, and for the young. The HR team has further created an ecosystem across India, where the company has more than 500,000 partners, and considers them part of the Jio family. Together with all partners, the Jio family is nearly 5,000,000-strong.... Read More

Connected car production is growing rapidly in both mature and emerging automobile markets, according to the latest forecast by Gartner . The production of new automobiles equipped with data connectivity, either through a built-in communications module or by a tether to a mobile device, is forecast to reach 12.4 million in 2016 and increase to 61 million in 2020. Gartner defines the connected car as an automobile that is capable of bidirectional wireless communication with an external network for the purpose of delivering digital content and services, transmitting telemetry data from the vehicle, enabling remote monitoring and control, or managing in-vehicle systems. “The connected vehicle is the foundation for fundamental opportunities and disruptions in the automotive industry and many other vertical industries,” said  James Hines, research director, Gartner ... Read More

NCR today announced that it is now the first financial technology company to achieve the milestone of installing 100,000 ATM machines in India. The 100,000th NCR ATM is located at State Bank of India’s (SBI) branch at Nariman Point in Mumbai. NCR continues to stay committed to India with service and support centers in over 260 locations, covering about 4,500 contact points in India alone. With its team of over 3,500 professionals NCR continues to transform into a “hardware-enabled, software-driven” business. “It is a moment of great pride for us to celebrate 20 successful years of business in India and mark the occasion with the installation of our 100,000th ATM machine. We have been privileged to be associated with all leading banks in India and look forward to continue delivering value to financial institutions for many more years, said Navroze Dastur, country manager, NCR India.... Read More

Google today announced that it will open a new Google Cloud Region in Mumbai and this is expected to be live in 2017. The India cloud region is aimed at offering Google Cloud Platform services to Indian developers and enterprise customers. The local region will help make Google Cloud Platform services even faster for Indian customers, enhancing differentiators that are already motivating companies to choose Google as their partner. With more than one billion end users, Google Cloud has gained significant traction in India and across the world. Globally, key customers already leveraging the benefits of Google Cloud Platform include Snap Inc (formerly SnapChat), Niantic Labs (Pokemon Go), Telus International, and Evernote. In India too, we have seen great customer momentum with thousands of customers including major brands like Wipro, Ashok Leyland, Smartshift by Mahindra & Mahindra, Dainik Bhaskar Group and INshorts.com building on Google Cloud Platform.......

Every year, VARINDIA conducts Tech Summit in Bengaluru (Silicon Valley of India) by the name Southern India Information Technology Fair 201 6, held on 23rd September 2016 at The Hotel Chancery Pavilion, Bengaluru. The Summit discussed on various emerging technologies to hit the Industry. The theme for the summit this year was “ Innovative Platform to support Digital India ” and a special team was invited to deliberate on the topic of Impact of GST on the ICT Industry, which was attended by experts from the Finance and Taxation domain, Consultant, CIO, VARs and the Industry leaders. Finally there was the award function that felicitated the business partners from Southern India in addition to the technology showcase that displayed the stellar leadership and outstanding IT implementations. VARs are the pillar of success in their respective regions representing the most innovative IT leaders in Southern India. The event was focused on digital disruptions surrounding...

The government has finalised provisional empanelment of Cloud Service Offerings of Cloud Service providers (CSPs) coined as MeghRaj today but Amazon Web Services (AWS) name is missing from the list. With reference to the RFP dated 30th December 2015, MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has successfully concluded the evaluation process of provisionally empaneling the Cloud Service Offerings of Cloud Service Providers. The letter of empanelment has been awarded to the following cloud service providers for two years, subject to the written acceptance of terms and conditions within 15 days.... Read More

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced plans for a spin-off and merger of its non-core software assets with Micro Focus in a transaction valued at approximately $8.8 billion. The combination of these software assets which includes HPE’s Application Delivery Management, Big Data, Enterprise Security, Information Management & Governance and IT Operations Management businesses and Micro Focus’ highly complementary portfolio will create one of the world’s largest pure-play software companies. The move enables Hewlett Packard Enterprise to realize its vision of being the industry’s leading provider of hybrid IT, built on the secure, next-generation, software-defined infrastructure that will run customers’ data centers today, bridge them to multi-cloud environments tomorrow, and enable the emerging intelligent edge that will power campus, branch and IoT applications for decades to come.... Read More

PayU , the global online payment service provider has acquired Citrus Pay , a leading Indian payments technology player for $130 million. PayU’s $130 million transaction is the largest ever M&A cash deal in Indian fintech, demonstrating its payments and financial services expansion strategy. The deal will grow PayU India customers to more than 30 million, processing a forecasted 150 million transactions in 2016 worth a combined $4.2 billion, growing at 50 per cent YoY. The agreement also enables PayU to quickly bring additional innovative financial services to market for its business and consumer customers. Amrish Rau , currently Citrus Pay managing director, will become CEO of PayU in India. Reporting to PayU Global CEO, Laurent le Moal , he will lead a talented entrepreneurial management team across PayU and Citrus Pay.... Read More

SAP announced that it is the first MNC technology company to be awarded the worldwide Economic Dividends for Gender Equality (EDGE) certificate, recognizing its global commitments in achieving gender diversity and equality in the workplace. The EDGE Certification is the premier standard and methodology for evaluating a corporate commitment to gender equality. SAP’s worldwide certification process began in March 2016 — after it became the first tech company in the United States to achieve EDGE Certification earlier this year. Global certification, which requires that countries that comprise 80 per cent of an organization be included, was awarded after a third-party review of company data, gender practices and employment policies, and employee survey results in an additional 12 countries – Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom.... Read More

Amdocs, the leading provider of customer experience solutions, announced Amdocs Optima, a new digital customer management and commerce platform for mid-sized enterprises. Designed for mid-sized communication businesses and digital enterprises of all sizes to monetize any product or service, Amdocs Optima supports the entire business lifecycle, from order to cash, and can be deployed on premise or in the cloud. Amdocs Optima allows service providers to quickly enter a new vertical, line of business or geography, offering sophisticated revenue management capabilities to support pre- and post-paid customers and any B2B model, across all channels. The new platform consolidates and expands on Amdocs’ offerings for mid-sized communication businesses, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and digital enterprises, including acquired products, and introduces a unifying business integration layer and a sophisticated user interface with a common, cloud-based arc...

Around 70 companies have applied for Virtual Network Operators license to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) , government of India. According to industry insiders, the list of 70 companies does not include any large corporates but majority of VNO applicants are interested in starting ISP services. On the operator front, BSNL has shown active interest in joining hands with VNOs as it will help in extending its network to new customers and also help in increased capacity utilization of its mobile network. Initially Datawind and Oxigen had shown interest for virtual network operators license but VARINDIA could not confirm whether they applied for VNO license.... Read More

Snapdeal , India’s largest online marketplace has announced the launch of its new brand identity, “ Unbox Zindagi ” campaign. The new brand identity repositions Snapdeal as the platform that believes in the potential and dreams of its consumers and partners them in their journey to a better life. The new brand identity focuses on the lives, dreams and aspirations of the consumers and is the culmination of an intense effort involving deep research and involvement of top creative agencies from India and outside.... Read More

The Education Department under the Government of Rajasthan has announced a unique initiative to promote digital learning across the state using virtual digital rooms through Cisco’s Connected Learning solution. This initiative aims to enhance the quality of education through digital learning for academia to connect, collaborate, create, and share content across 12 centres of State Institute for Education Management And Training (SIEMAT) in the state. The initiative was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje on the occasion of Teachers’ Day, in an interaction with educators and students across all 12 SIEMAT facilities live – via the Connected Learning setup.   With this collaboration Cisco, along with the Government of Rajasthan, strengthens the foundation of next generation education to empower teachers as well as students through innovative approaches to pedagogy and learning, supports the teachers’ professional development, and prov...

Jio has intimated the Department of Telecommunications (“DOT”), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (“TRAI”) and the security agencies regarding the commencement of its  wireless telecommunication services in all 22 service areas from 5 September 2016. The Company has also filed the tariff plans for wireless services with TRAI. With these steps, the Company has fulfilled all the requirements of Unified License for commencement of services. Jio’s tariff plans transparently convey that all subscribers under the ‘Jio Welcome Offer’ will be entitled to certain special benefits. These benefits comprise of access to unlimited LTE data and national voice, video and messaging services, including national roaming, along with the full bouquet of Jio applications and content, completely free up to 31 December 2016... Read More

Minister of railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated IP based video surveillance system for 17 stations and central control room at Madgaon. Railway stations that comes under CCTV surveillance are Kolad (KOL), Mangaon (MNI), Khed (KHED), Chiplun (CHI), Ratnagiri (RN), Kankawali (KKW), Kudal (KUDL), Sindhudurg (SNDD) and Sawantwadi (SWV) in Ratnagiri region. Pernem (PERN), Karmali (KRMI), Cancona (CNO), Karwar (KAWR), Gokarna (GOK), Bhatkal (BTJL), Udupi (UD) and Surathkal (SL) in Karwar region. Each station is fitted with 12 to 16 nos of Fixed Dome type and Fixed Box type cameras with Network Video Recorder having a recording facility for 30 days are provided at each station to cover the station entrance, lobby, platforms, ticket booking counters etc. One 21” LED monitor is provided in station master’s room at these stations for monitoring of cleanliness. An additional 21” LED monitor is provided at 9 Railway Protection Force outposts for security monito...