VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

Indian Tech Industry lost a good friend, Lux Rao:  Laxminarayan Rao is popularly recognised as   Lux Rao , was a great human being. Suddenly, a news was broken today morning that he couldn’t win his battle with Cancer and succumbed last night. He was working as the Senior Director and Leader of NTT - Solutions, Consulting & Digital Transformation.   My interaction with Lux started from the company Xerox in the year 1995 then Canon office in New Delhi. He was a true friend of VARINDIA  and his contribution for our publication will be remembered for ever.   Lux has been a leader in the space of Digital Transformation Initiatives  and his responsibility lies in understanding the technological landscape in order to gauge the magnitude of the innovative possibilities that we have at our disposal. As a passionate technology evangelist, I have authored several whitepapers on Green IT, Cloud Computing and have been invited at various forums for emerging technologies as chairperson, moderat

GoDaddy launches new marketing campaign with MS Dhoni to inspire local businesses in India to build a website:  GoDaddy Inc.   (NYSE: GDDY) today launched a new integrated marketing campaign encouraging small local businesses in the country to create an online presence for their business. Aligned with the government’s   ‘Vocal for Local’ mission , GoDaddy aims to support local businesses in India by helping them build their own website easily and at an affordable price.   For this campaign GoDaddy will be working with its current brand ambassador in India and one of the world’s most  renowned cricketers, MS Dhoni . The company expects Dhoni branding will change the business scenario in the country and will encourage small local business owners to build their presence online to reach a larger set of customers and grow their ventures successfully. In line with the company’s commitment to offer support in local languages, the campaign will be available in seven Indian languages, including

Tech Mahindra to bear COVID-19 vaccination cost for all employees globally:  Tech Mahindra   has announced that it would cover the   COVID-19 vaccination   cost for all its employees across the world. Currently, over 121,900 professionals across 90 countries work for the company. The company has urged all its associates to register themselves for vaccination through the government app -   CoWIN/Aarogya Setu , and follow the mandated process.   Harshvendra Soin , Global Chief People Officer and Head - Marketing, Tech Mahindra, said, “I am delighted to announce that as part of our associate well-being program, we at Tech Mahindra, will reimburse the vaccine cost for all our associates globally. This is to reiterate our belief in ‘Wellness before Business’, and underscore our commitment towards our employees’ health and safety."   Tech Mahindra has also launched ‘Mhealthy’, a comprehensive COVID-19 risk screening test to test the presence of anti-bodies along with all the vital healt

Zuckerberg claims Apple's iOS 14 privacy feature might benefit Facebook:  Mark Zuckerberg , Facebook founder and CEO has said that Apple’s iOS 14 privacy feature could benefit his company. But earlier he opposed to   Apple’s iOS 14 privacy feature   because it limits advertisement tracking.   He said in a Clubhouse room on March 18 that, “It is possible that we may even be in a stronger position if Apple’s changes encourage more businesses to conduct more commerce on our platforms by making it harder for them to use their data in order to find the customers that would want to use their products outside of our platforms.... Read More

Government asked railway employees to convert ATM debit cards to Rupay cards:  The government has said over 12 lakh employees of   Indian Railways   have been advised to convert their existing debit or ATM cards to RuPay-based cards, a move aimed at giving fillip to the ' Aatmanirbhar Bharat ' campaign and the 'Digital India initiative'.   Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways  informed the Parliament that the railways was also facilitating promotion of the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' campaign and the ' Digital India initiative '. RuPay is an Indian multinational financial and payment service launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella organisation for operating retail payment and settlement systems in the country.   The minister also said "the zonal railways and production units have been asked to facilitate conversion of existing Debit/ATM cards issued to railway employees by banks to the RuPay-based cards in order to give a

AWS to scale cloud skilling, and accelerate innovation with education technology startups in India:  In line to complement the growth and diversification in the country,   AWS   has find the way to collaborate with Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced new initiatives to strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in India, by empowering school students with cloud computing skills, and enabling entrepreneurs to build innovative education technology (EdTech) solutions on the cloud.   A Statement of Intent (SoI) was signed between  NITI Aayog  and Amazon Internet Services Private Limited (AISPL), which undertakes the resale and marketing of  AWS Cloud services in India .   As per the SoI, AIM will leverage AWS Educate, Amazon’s global program that provides resources for students and educators to accelerate cloud-related learning. This program will introduce the fundamentals of cloud computing such as cloud storage, virtual compute

Wikipedia to charge Big Tech companies for leeching off its content:  Wikipedia   will begin charging the mega corporations for leeching off its user-generated content. The endeavor paves the way for Wikimedia Enterprises, which will tackle these business dealings.   The many instances of Big Tech tapping into Wikipedia's services include Google Search relying on excerpts from Wikipedia articles and linking to the same for user search queries. All AI-based assistants such as Google Assistant, Apple's Siri, and Amazon's Alexa heavily rely on the Wikipedia database for answering user queries for information. Wikimedia Enterprises will charge Big Tech for these services in the future.   At the outset,  Wikimedia Enterprises  will handle the sale/delivery of Wikipedia content to software giants such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. But people familiar with the matter have revealed that eventually smaller businesses might also come under its purview.   It is also reported that Big

Enact a law to make Facebook, Google, Apple to pay publishers for news: sushil Modi:  BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi   has urged the government to enact a law to make tech companies pay local news publishers for their content. He said traditional and print medias in the country are passing through their worst phase with deep financial crisis in recent history as ads have shifted to tech platforms of Facebook, Google and YouTube. The government should enact a law on the pattern of Australian Code," Modi further said.   Taking a cue from Australia, India should enact a law to make tech giants such as Facebook and Google pay local publishers of news content, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi demanded in  Rajya Sabha  on Wednesday. All the media fraternity has welcomed this statement of Sushil Modi.   Raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention, the  former deputy chief minister of Bihar  said, "The government must make Google, Facebook and YouTube pay print and news channels for t

Public sector employees across India are protesting against privatisation:  Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman   had announced the proposal during her   Budget 2021   presentation. This also comes after bank unions observed a 2-day strike to protest the privatisation. Now LIC employees to go for strike on Mar 18 to protest against the government's proposal of disinvesting the insurer. of two public sector banks.   Banking services across India were affected over the past couple of days as public sector banks (PSBs) employees staged a two-day strike (March 15-16, 2021) to express displeasure over the government’s intent to privatise PSBs.   The impact was not only limited to customer services like cash withdrawals, cheque clearances, deposits, loan approvals and remittances but also government treasury operations.   But, that is not all. Employees of general insurance companies are undertaking a strike on March 17, and employees of  Life Insurance Corporation (LIC)  will protest on

P K Sinha, the Principal Advisor PM Narendra Modi, has resigned:  P K Sinha, a retired IAS officer of 1977 batch , was appointed as Principal Advisor to the   Prime Minister   in September 2019, after a brief stint as an officer on special duty (OSD).   Sinha was made OSD to the prime minister in August 2019, after he had served four years as cabinet secretary. Sinha had also served as Secretary in the Ministry of Power.   Sinha has resigned just after a year and a half after of the appointment. Sources said, there is a possibility that Sinha could be considered by the  Narendra Modi government  for a constitutional post, such as lieutenant governor of Delhi or Puducherry, sources said, adding that he resigned citing “personal reasons”.... Read More

Ratan Tata buys stake in media company - Pritish Nandy Communications:  The Chairperson of Tata Trusts, Ratan Tata   has bought a stake in   Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC)   in his personal capacity. However, PNC did not disclose the amount of stake acquired by Ratan Tata.   The media company, PNC in an exchange filing said, "Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons and Chairman of Tata Trusts, has, in his personal capacity, acquired a stake in Pritish Nandy Communications Ltd through market purchases last week."   The company also said, "The filming of the popular series, declared last year as Amazon's most watched show out of India, got postponed because of restrictions induced by the pandemic and will now start under strict security protocols.... Read More

FIRE SALE IS A CYBER SECURITY PANDEMIC; UNSEEN, ALL PERVASIVE AND FATAL:  Fire Sale is an all-out cyberwarfare attack   that performs a three-stage systematic attack on a nation's computer infrastructure. Just because something has never happened does not mean that it would never happen. Commercial aircrafts being used as missiles hitting Twin Towers in a suicide attack is as weird as it can get. This was nearly twenty years back. The manner the digital technology has paced up in its negative avatar, can beat even the best of the sci-fi movies hollow. Whatever might be the enterprise we are in, we can afford to be oblivious of this fact, only at our own peril. 10 power assets, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu ports came under RedEcho cyberattack, should be taken as a timely warning for things which can go awry. The recent SolarWinds attack in the US on the government, its high profile agencies and several other private companies is a clear indication of the same trend.   A bit of a history would

Praveen Jonnalgadda designates as CIO at Commscope:  Praveen Jonnalgadda has recently been promoted as Chief Information Officer (CIO)   at Commscope.   Commscope  is a global company with operations in India as well and Praveen was key in opening its capability centre in Hyderabad in 2013, creating employment opportunities in Telangana. Praveen, who hails from Miryalaguda, holds a master’s degree and PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the department of Mathematics, Osmania University.   Praveen has over 20 years of experience in leading global teams in product engineering, software development, manufacturing, supply chain and information technology. At Commscope, he is responsible for implementing a digital strategy. He joined CommScope in 2008, having previously filled leadership roles at Ford Motor Company and Sun Microsystems. The CIO Executive Council named Praveen one of their 50 ‘Ones to Watch’ technology leaders in 2018.   “It’s a great responsibility and quite a satisfying ac

Tech Mahindra acquires majority stake in Perigord Asset Holdings:  Tech Mahindra   has announced of acquiring 70% stake in   Perigord Asset Holdings (“Perigord”), a digital workflow and artwork, labelling and BPO services firm . This acquisition will help Tech Mahindra to augment expertise in the global pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science (HLS) sectors.   The strategic partnership will strengthen Tech Mahindra’s position as a leading digital transformation enabler in the artwork and packaging services space with an integrated platform and services portfolio. Additionally, Tech Mahindra will leverage Perigord’s expertise and offerings to extend capabilities towards delivering efficiency and automation levers, across sectors including consumer-packaged goods (CPG), medical devices and over the counter (OTC) products to enable growth and scalability in the future. The acquisition is a part of Tech Mahindra’s long-term growth plan to build presence across key markets in Ireland, Ge

WhatsApp CEO anxious about India's rush for homegrown apps like Koo:  WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart   expressed his worry about the Indian government's push for homegrown apps like   Koo   because it could force a ‘splinternet', a characterization where instead of having a global internet, countries have their own regulations. "We already have a splinternet with Mainland China and the rest of the world," Cathcart said on the Big Technology Podcast last week adding that "people benefit a lot from products that work globally."   Koo is claimed to be India's answer to Twitter for non-English users. It has picked a lot of steam in the country in the wake of the  Narendra Modi  government's ongoing war with the US-based micro-blogging platform. Many big-ticket politicians and celebrities have joined Koo in the wake of the 'standoff' giving it a major shot in the arm, something that saw it cross over 40 lakh users within no time. Koo aims to draw

Salesforce appoints Sanket Atal as Managing Director for India:  Salesforce, the global leader in CRM , today announced that   Sanket Atal will join the company as Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Sites (India) based in Bengaluru . Atal will be instrumental in driving the next phase of growth for Salesforce in India combining the best of design thinking and digital strategies to build breakthrough customer experiences and ways of working with specific focus on operational execution.   Salesforce has invested significantly in India over many years, adding more jobs, expanding its office space and partner ecosystem to support its growing customer base. India is home to the second highest Salesforce workforce outside of the US with over 4000 employees across Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Launched in 2016, the Salesforce Centre of Excellence (CoE) located in Hyderabad has been instrumental in fueling innovation globally, building end-to-end solutions for customers i