VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Components Tracker Service, one in three smartphones to be shipped in 2020 will natively embed machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities at the chipset level. Apple, with its Bionic system on chip (SoC), proliferating across its complete portfolio over the next couple of years, will drive native AI adoption in smartphones. Its universal adoption of AI-capable SoCs will likely enable Apple to lead the AI-capable chip market through 2020. Huawei, with its HiSilicon Kirin 970 SoC, launched in September and finding application in the Huawei Mate 10 series launched in Munich, is second to market after Apple with AI-capable smartphones. The Huawei Mate 10 is able to accomplish diverse computational tasks efficiently, thanks to the neural processing unit at the heart of the Kirin 970 SoC.... Read More

BankBazaar.com, India’s leading financial marketplace with 50 million visits per quarter, has raised US$30 million in a funding round led by Experian, the world’s largest credit rating agency and information Management Company. Speaking about the investment, Adhil Shetty, CEO, BankBazaar, said, “Experian is a global leader in credit reporting and information management, and we are very excited to have them on board as a part of our investor group which includes Amazon, Sequoia, Eight Roads (Fidelity Growth Partners), and Walden International. There is a natural synergy between the world’s largest information management company and one of the fastest-growing fintech companies. The funds from this round will be used to further strengthen our position as the leader in secure paperless access to loans, cards, and mutual funds. Experian will enable us to accelerate towards our vision of paperless access to all financial products.” Read More

Kotak Mahindra Bank and Samsung India have announced expansion of Samsung Pay platform for Kotak’s Visa Credit and Debit Cardholders. According to the company, with this, Kotak customers can now tap and pay using their Samsung smartphones at merchant outlets having card acceptance machines. The company has revealed that the collaboration significantly enhances consumer convenience and gives a fillip to the country’s “Digital India” mission. In addition to Kotak’s other digital payment solutions including UPI, Bharat QR Code, and One Time Fund Transfer on the bank’s mobile banking platform, Samsung Pay will enable Kotak customers to make contactless and cardless payments.... Read More

We understand that Apple has been working on a lot of innovations from time to time - the latest being a TouchID embedded into its iPhone display or the FaceID complemented by a bezel-less display. The iPhone X has been a revolution for Apple in terms of design. Its Home button, later integrated with TouchID, has been a part of the iconic design for years.  However, this may not be the latest innovation like we all have been expecting.  If the Korean news outlet The Bell can be believed, Apple is reportedly working with LG to come up with a flexible display. The result is that by 2020, we are going to see foldable iPhones in production. With the company getting positive feedback on its innovation designs so far, trying something new again could be a great idea for Apple.... Read More

Instagram crashes again and your account could be of 6,000,000 hacked ? Users around the world vent their frustration on Twitter after service goes down for the second time in a week and with this hundreds of Instagram users reported they could not access the service's app. The fact is hackers were able to exploit a bug that opened details when a user was asked to reset their password. They intercepted email addresses and phone numbers after sending false password reset requests and with this hackers could have accessed six million accounts and created a database of details on the dark web.  Mike Krieger is co-founder and chief technology officer of photo-sharing application and service, Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook Inc., in April 2012, Instagram, believes above 5% users are in India and India as one of the high growth markets. Mike said: ‘We quickly fixed the bug, and have been working with law enforcement on the matter. Although we cannot determine which spec

The Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) 2017 is to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on November 23, 2017. The event will see participation of ministers, officials, industry leaders and academia engaged in the global cyber ecosystem. Over 3,500 participants will take part in the week long event directly and millions virtually from India and abroad through video conference, webinars and webcast. For those who are not travelling to Delhi, about 800 locations around the world will be connected to GCCS 2017 (www.gccs2017.in) through video conference and 2,000 locations through webinars.... Read More

“Our customers not only want greater performance, flexibility, security, and portability for their cloud initiatives; they also want the freedom of choice for their heterogeneous infrastructures. They want to be able to deploy their technologies of choice on their scalable infrastructure of choice,” says Mike Ferris, Vice President, Technical Business Development and Business Architecture - Red Hat.  Alibaba Cloud is now part of the Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider program, joining a group of technology industry leaders who offer Red Hat-tested and validated solutions that extend the functionality of Red Hat's broad portfolio of open source cloud solutions. The partnership extends the reach of Red Hat’s offerings across the top public clouds globally, providing a scalable destination for cloud computing and reiterating Red Hat’s commitment to providing greater choice in the cloud.... Read More

Citing an "unprecedented crisis", Samsung Electronics Chief Kwon Oh-hyun has stepped down from his position. His resignation comes on the same day the firm forecast record quarterly profits, citing higher memory chip prices.  As per news reports, Kwon said that he was thinking about this exit for quite some time and could not delay it further. He also added that as the company is confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, it is time for the company to start a new with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to the challenges arising from the rapidly-changing IT industry.... Read More

If you are using a smart phone or any mobility devices, you need to be smarter else nothing is secure in this digital world and this is getting proved. Security researcher claims OnePlus is gathering critical data such as serial number, IMEI number, wireless network IDs and timestamps for the screen on and screen off. Here’s how to keep your data secure. A million dollar question is on which Mobile phone brand to Trust or it is simple that don't keep any data inside the mobile phone ? OnePlus phone maker is allegedly collecting user data without users' consent and is deleting related queries from its own community forum. The Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus has allegedly been collecting user data without their consent. A UK-based software engineer Christopher Moore shared on his personal blog how the phone maker is stealing user’s data.What amazed him was, he was shocked by the fact that, they even tracked which apps he used and when.... Read More

Facebook unveiled virtual-reality headset that works without being tethered to a computer, rounding out its plan for pushing the emerging technology to the masses.  The new $199 wireless headset by the title Oculus Go -- meant to be the company’s most accessible VR device -- will be available in early 2018. This moves will help Facebook reach a goal of putting 1 billion people in virtual reality, a technology that enables immersive gaming, video viewing and social networking, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday at Oculus Connect, the annual conference of Facebook’s virtual-reality division. The company has focused on selling virtual reality as a way to remotely connect with other people and experience new things, as opposed to just as a gaming device -- the way most people use VR today.... Read More

Bharti Airtel and Tata have entered into an understanding (“Agreement”) to merge Consumer Mobile Businesses (CMB) of TTSL (Tata Teleservices Limited) and TTML (Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited) into Bharti Airtel. The acquisition is subject to requisite regulatory approvals.  Speaking on the partnership, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel, said, “This is a significant development towards further consolidation in the Indian mobile industry and reinforces our commitment to lead India’s digital revolution by offering world-class and affordable telecom services through a robust technology and solid spectrum portfolio. On completion, the proposed acquisition will undergo seamless integration; both on the customer as well as the network side, and further strengthen our market position in several key circles. The customers of Tata will be able to enjoy India’s widest and fastest voice & data network, and bouquet of Airtel’s best-in-class products and services.”... R

HID Global has signed an agreement to acquire Mercury Security, an OEM supplier of controllers for physical access control. Mercury Security has over three million controllers installed at tens of thousands of sites worldwide. Mercury’s intelligent controllers, interface boards and software perfectly complement HID’s readers, smart cards and mobile IDs for opening doors.  HID’s acquisition of Mercury Security is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. The closing of the deal is expected to happen by Q4 2017. Financial terms of the agreement are not being publicly disclosed.... Read More

The Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister has zeroed in on 10 key areas for economic stabilization and bringing the economy back to shape over the next six months. Acknowledging a slowdown, the Council has picked up monetary policy, job creation, public expenditure, agriculture and animal husbandry among the top focus areas.  The EAC, in its first formal meeting on Wednesday, saw Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian making a presentation on how to boost economic growth using a combination of policy levers.  EAC Chairman Bibek Debroy, who is also a Member of the NITI Aayog, commented that the members of EAC have reached a consensus that various reasons have been in play that slowed down growth. “Our entire thrust would be on implementable decisions. Our views on the ten identified areas would be on specific things that you can change tomorrow,” he said.... Read More

Videonetics, the world-leading Visual Computing Platform Development company, is proud to have been selected as the technology provider to secure Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata, for the largest football tournament ‘FIFA U-17 World Cup’ India, 2017.  Covering an area of 76.40 acres, the stadium has the seating capacity of nearly 85,000. Being an international tournament, the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 is attracting huge masses, both Indian as well as International visitors, dignitaries, VIPs, Government officials to name a few. Considering underlying challenges associated with such massive occasion, Videonetics has successfully designed and deployed a combined solution of Intelligent Video Management System (IVMS) and Intelligent Traffic Management system (ITMS), covering more than 250 cameras including 4K, full HD, 360◦ Pan Tilt & Zoom and specialized license plate cameras. The solution is not only securing various areas like field area, entry & exit gates, galleries, V

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mandated e-commerce firms to clear seller payments within two days from the date of intimation of the completion of transaction. In response to a news portal, RBI’s makes it clear that the completion of transaction here means the act of making the payment, to which presently, the majority of e-commerce companies take a week to 15 days to settle payments to sellers. It is reported that the online marketplaces have been ordered to follow the 2009 guidelines pertaining to the settlement of payments for electronic transactions involving .... Read More

eMudhra has launched an R&D center in blockchain-related technologies to further enhance Blockchain-based systems for Smart Cities. According to the company, a Blockchain fundamentally deals with secure transactions using cryptographic keys and this development is in line with the company’s mission to develop cutting-edge technology that brings smarter governance for smart cities. The company also plans to introduce solutions that will help various industries which require identity verification and authentication in conducting transactions across smart cities. eMudhra will also hire about 100 people to help accelerate efforts to bring about blockchain- related solutions through its R&D center.... Read More

Major telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio have started preparations to bring in the latest “massive MIMO” technology into their respective networks. The massive MIMO technology is considering as a key factor in enabling 5G technology which is expected to be rolled out by 2020. According to the latest reports, brands like Bharti Airtel has already started the first round of deployment in Bangalore and Kolkata with ZTE (Chinese gear Vendor) and will soon expand to other parts too. While, the brands such as Reliance Jio and Vodafone too carried out trials of massive MIMO technology with ZTE recently.... Read More

Tata Teleservices that will shut its operations soon is preparing an exit plan for most of its 5,000-odd employees, which includes a notice of three to six months, severance packages for those willing to leave earlier, a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for elders, while transferring only a small part of its employees to other group companies. Company executives and industry insiders said the debt-laden telecom company had last month asked circle heads to leave by March 31, 2018.  "The Tata Group has always taken care of its people, but very few will get absorbed in other group companies. It is unfair to saddle other Tata companies with employees of TTSL," said a senior official. The transfer may only happen if there’s a niche set of skills needed in other firms that may match with those of employees in the telecom unit. There may be voluntary retirement schemes for the senior employees - above a particular age - that will be rolled out in the next few months. For ma

TCL Alcatel has made the purchase of its products even sweeter for its valued customers. The company has entered into an agreement with Reliance Jio and following this association the TCL Alcatel customers will benefit with upto 20 GB additional Jio 4G data.  Speaking at the association Praveen Valecha, Regional Director, TCL Alcatel India remarked, “The Indian consumer is very conscious when it comes to the value proposition of the products they purchase. Our vision is to provide premium experience of smart devices at an affordable price. Our association with Jio is the result of our constant pursuit to provide the additional benefit to our customers” Read More

In a bid to move its current filing with NSE-Emerge, an Indian IT company, Fourth Dimension Solutions Limited, has decided to issue shares (three lac shares)to be subscribed by its promoter at a price which is higher than the current share price. The Indian promoter showing confidence in the Indian IT industry will subscribe the shares in the IT company at Rs. 78/- per share when the market price of the its share is being traded at around Rs. 51/- per share.  Fourth Dimension Solutions Ltd is an IT company mainly engaged in large System Integration IT projects, both in government as well as commercial segment. This is a rare instance in the history of listed entities that the promoter is subscribing shares at 53% higher than the traded price. This should give impetus to the overall market sentiments regarding the scrip. Besides this the company will also issue shares in the non-promoter category as well at Rs.78/- in a recent report .... Read More