VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

Vodafone Aircel look up ways to speed up NOFN e1424850277212 Vodafone, Aircel look up ways to speed up NOFNVodafone and Aircel have started talks with the government on how to speed up the much delayed national broadband project. The government recently setup a committee on NOFN to fastrack the project. The NOFN project has assumed greater importance after the announcement in August of the Digital India initiative, a programme to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. A way is to get private companies lay down optic fibre in the second phase of NOFN, which aims at providing broadband connectivity to 250,000 panchayats by December 2016 at an estimated cost of Rs 30,000 crore. Aircel had a workshop with the DoT and Bharat Broadband Network officials on how they can collaborate on the project and what they should do to build the high-speed data network. BBNL, a special purpose vehicle set up by the government in 2012 is responsible for manag...

F secure logo e1424849267400 New Delhi emerges as the top malicious city in 2014Sality, Ramnit, Trogan.LNK.Gen, Trogan.Script and Virtob are the top five malicious family detections and Delhi (20%), Hyderabad (9%), Chennai (9%) and Chandigarh (7%) were the top malicious cities in 2014, according to the detections from the “The state of Internet in India” Report, unveiled by F-Secure. The report affirms the rise of malware infections in the country and states Delhi as the most infected city in 2014. The report also states that banking-related malware has been consistently topping the chart in India. The “Ramnit” malware steals bank user names and passwords and it mostly spreads through USB removable drives. Furthermore, PCs in India are moving away from Windows XP. Downadup/Conficker infection is also on the decline over the past three years in India. Commenting during a press meet to announce these findings, Pekka Usva, Vice-President, Corporate Security, F-Secure, said, “Malwa...

indian smartphones e1424850983904 Indian smartphone market share in Q4 2014 comes downIt is the first time ever when the Indian smartphone market shrunk following a piling up of inventories by handset makers at the start of the October-December period. However, Samsung continued to maintain its leading position in the smartphone market with 22% share in the fourth quarter of 2014. Smartphones made up 35% of the overall mobile phone business in the country, which was nearly 3 times of its share in the same quarter of 2013. In Q4 2014, the smartphone market declined 4 percent while the feature phone market dipped 14 percent over Q3 2014. Apple has posted a tough competition to the Korean consumer electronics brand Samsung in Q4. According to IDC, online exclusive brands are hurting the Samsung brand in value for money category. Intex came out as the third largest smart phone vendor in India with 8% share, surpassing Lava during this Quarter. Lava however remains stable with a...

The government is expected to let Indian companies manufacturing 70% of their goods locally to venture into the burgeoning e-commerce space.  The proposal, which is set to go to the cabinet over the next few weeks, is a follow-up to an announcement made by finance minister Arun Jaitley in his maiden Budget. Sources said the department of industry policy and promotion (DIPP) will also define what constitutes an “Indian company” after some of the local players raised questions about it. Since then some of the Indian companies have approached the government, pointing to complete absence of clarity in the current policy regime. Some executives have also said that the retail trading policy drafted by the government has assumed that domestic players don’t have the capability to be in the sector as the rules discriminate against them. The new policy follows several rounds of consultations with some of the companies that want to enter the space... S ee more  

Facebook launches Ads Manager app for ioS devices. The app, called Facebook Ads Manager, is initially available on iOS, and allows its users to create and edit ads, track spending, view ad results, receive ad-related notifications, and more. These notifications can alert advertisers to things like ads that are coming up for expiration, when you’re nearing a spending limit, or other ad performance metrics, like Page Likes or how your ad it compares to other similar ad sets. The app’s simple interface also makes it possible to design ads from start to finish directly on your phone by selecting photos from your phone or pulling in Page posts, writing the ad text, and then targeting your desired audience using sliders and buttons to narrow down that audience by demographic information... See more  

nasscom logo1 e1424760657283 NASSCOM kick starts Digital Literacy Week as part of NDLMWith a target to bring digital literacy to over one lakh Indians, the NASSCOM Foundation has launched the Digital Literacy Week. This initiative, a part of the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM), will complement the government’s vision to empower at least one person per household with critical digital literacy skills by 2020. The National Digital Literacy Mission is a far-sighted, dynamic and integrated platform of digital literacy awareness, education and capacity programmes that will help rural and the underserved communities fully participate in the global digital economy. The NASSCOM Foundation is the industry partner to the Government of India to accomplish the first phase goal for NDLM or “DISHA” by making 10 lakh individuals in India digitally literate in 18 months. This programme is expected to touch the lives of more than 250 million individuals over the next few years and aims at ...

idc logo new1 India Tablet Market sees strong growth in Q4 2014The year ended on a positive note for the tablet market by having posted a strong growth in Q4 2014. The market has also witnessed a steady growth during the festive third quarter. According to IDC, India tablet market reported shipments of 0.96 million units in Q4, a quarter-on-quarter growth of 3.6%. Strong performance of local players as well as increasing interest of the PC OEMs in the tablets space contributed to the expansion of the market over Q3. The share of PC OEMs in the market has grown by more than double year-on-year. “The market saw a correction post the introduction of BIS regulation in July 2013. Unbranded tablets were wiped off from the market, thereby contracting the bubble of growth witnessed in 1H 2013 and hence resulting in year-on-year decline in growth,” says Tanvi HYPERLINK “http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=PRF004408” Mann, Market Analyst, Client Devices IDC India. 7-inch tablets p...

hid logo e1424762397561 HID Global expands its IronTag RFID Transponder SeriesHID Global has announced that its Identification Technologies division has launched its IronTag 206 RFID transponders that deliver the highest flame resistance rating available in a UHF tag. The transponder has a UL 94 V0 rating, which signifies that IronTag 206 units immediately self-extinguish when an ignition source is removed and will not drip particles that might cause flames to spread. “Today, HID Global customers can use RFID tags in virtually any environment, enabling unprecedented insight into new areas for process control and improvement,” said Richard Aufreiter, Director of product management for Identification Technologies with HID Global. “IronTag 206 transponders deliver uncompromised performance in the form of a lightweight, high-temperature on-metal UHF tag with up to 16 times more user memory than most UHF tags today.” Originally designed for tracking aircraft parts during assembly a...

Intending to make storage devices trendy, PNY Technologies has launched HP x778w USB 3.0 Flash Drive. The drive is thumb-sized, lightweight and compact and stores up to 64GB of your favourite documents, images, music, movies and more. The USB flash drive is shaped like an ice-cream and is made up of durable rubber housing. To attach the USB drive to the wallet, purse or backpack, there is a built-in strap hole design. The HP x778w features USB 3.0, offers fast speed transfer of files, performs an impressive read-and-write capacity of up to 90/30 MB/sec (64GB) and is also fully compatible with all versions and models of laptops and desktops. Available in a variety of storage capacities, ranging from 8GB to 64GB, it is compatible with the latest versions of Windows operating systems, including Vista, Windows 7 & 8 and also works with Mac OS: 10.3 and above. The drive comes with a 2-year warranty from the date of purchase... see more 

Juniper Networks has announced additions to its routing portfolio that expand the company’s Carrier Ethernet offerings. The new Juniper Networks ACX500 and ACX5000 routers, as well as enhancements to the Junos Space Network Management Platform software, will enable service providers to handle added capacity and accelerate service orchestration and provisioning more cost-effectively than ever before. With these new products, Juniper is continuing to build out its mobile IP portfolio to deliver a holistic approach that will enable more efficient mobile service creation. When combined with Juniper’s existing offerings, such as the Service Control Gateway and MX Series routing platforms, Juniper delivers IP/MPLS solutions that can flexibly enable new services at an optimized cost. Additionally, Juniper’s Carrier Ethernet solution seamlessly blends hardware and software to address service providers’ growing need to support mobile backhaul and metro Ethernet coverage on one common heter...

While most of the retail chains in the country are now scurrying to open online stores to cash in on the e-commerce boom in country, firms like MakeMyTrip, CarTrade, FirstCry and Lenskart are planning to build their offline presence with brick and mortar stores to woo more consumers. This is a strategy to reach out to people who still do not have access to Internet. According to reports, about 85% of the market is going to remain offline even after five years. Online shopping is convenient but it does not give that touch and feel experience, which customers would specially want. The prices of online and offline however are the same. For instance, while online travel firm MakeMyTrip has opened 18 company-owned stores in the recent past, baby and kids product portal Firstcry has taken its tally to more than 100 stores across the country... See more .

flipkart logo 150x150 Flipkart announces 2.5% more for ESOPFlipkart has set aside an additional 2.5% of its capital for expanding its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), as India’s most-valuable startup prepares to strengthen its senior management team. The online retailer may add at least eight people in the next one year to its newly reorganized senior leadership team. The fresh 2.5% ESOPs provision is on top of about 4.35% of capital already set aside for Flipkart employees and 1.1% for employees of Myntra. Flipkart is expected to have set a side $875million out of its estimated $11 billion valuation towards ESOPs. Flipkart is aggressively hiring senior employees to strengthen its technology, finance and leadership teams. Flipkart divided its top management into three groups. The biggest step-up was for Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal, who took over the reins of the combined company’s entire commerce platform. Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has stepped away from daily functio...

Panasonic has launched its fully-rugged Android Tablet FZ-B2. Developed to endure adverse usage conditions, the new solution has application across business verticals. It comes with a unique quick charging replaceable full-shift battery in addition to the standard 7-hour battery. This ensures that users need not worry about running out of power when they are out on the field as replacement is always on standby. Gunjan Sachdev, National Business Head – Toughbook, Panasonic India said, “Android tablets are becoming an increasingly attractive option in the enterprise, particularly for small and mid-sized businesses. Many of the tablets available on the market today are unreliable for businesses looking for a smart, dependable long-term investment. This Toughpad will assure customers that they can take advantage of the benefits of the Android platform without sacrificing on durability and enterprise-grade features.” Available at a price of Rs.75, 000 along...

Amdocs has launched the Amdocs Order Delivery Orchestrator solution, enabling service providers to better support their business customers across the order delivery lifecycle whilst providing increased agility, improved time-to-cash and reduced cost for the delivery of complex, enterprise orders. The solution supports hybrid order execution consisting of both traditional and virtual services (e.g. virtual fire wall or virtual customer premises equipment). “To improve the business customers’ experience, service providers must develop their service delivery to span multiple fulfilment stacks, including services in virtual and hybrid networks. The new Amdocs Order Delivery Orchestrator solution is part of Amdocs’ CES suite. Along with best practices and services for specific enterprise service use cases, the new solution increases service delivery efficiencies for complex orders, whereby improving the experience of business customers and accelerating the business value for the ser...

STK Accessories has announced a robust lineup of protection cases exclusively available for iPhone 6. The Product line up includes iphone 6 stand case, Ultra thin cases and TPU back cover  amongst the brand new cases designed by STK Accessories. STK Accessories has protected several generations of iPhones (and many other devices) and has a reputation for providing solid protection and a good fit. It’s slim enough to not detract from the iPhone 6’s svelte dimensions, while still offering comprehensive protection for the handset’s body, including the buttons. All these cases provide the bulk-free protection for which STK is known and have been carefully designed to complement the new, slimmer profile of the iPhone 6. “STK Accessories is a significant contributor to the ecosystem of accessories that enhance the smartphone experience for Apple customers. We’ve learned from their feedback and continually evolve our products accordingly. Our new designs for iPhone 6 continue our...

Reach Mobile has launched its HD range of handsets, in addition to the earlier range of products – Klassy 100 HD and Klassy 200 HD for the Indian market. Within a year of operation, Reach Mobile has launched 38 ranges of handsets catering to all the usage segments – feature phone, touch phone, smartphone and now HD phone. “Both Klassy 100 HD and 200 HD handsets have been designed with high-resolution camera and high-clarity music features. Klassy 200 has already evolved as a ‘Selfie King’ among the youth for its 8MP front camera. Within a year of our launch, Reach Mobile has set a benchmark in the market with a range of affordable, feature-rich smartphones in the Indian market. We are expanding our reach with aggressive marketing initiatives,” said Sunil Patwari, Managing Director, Reach Mobile.   Klassy 200 HD is another stylish Smartphone by Reach Mobile. The 7.3mm sleek phone is very user-friendly and is updated with Android kitkat 4.4.2. Klassy 200 HD runs smoothly ...

The ministry of earth sciences (MoES) has launched a smartphone app called ‘SAFAR-Air’ to provide the real-time air quality to people. It also provides a forecast for the next two days and a health advisory along with a colour coded grading of air quality in different city zones. The app can be downloaded for free either from Google Play store or the MoES and the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) websites. In Delhi, the app will provide air quality for east, north, south, west and central Delhi. In Pune, the app will cover urban, suburban and two other zones. A similar monitoring for Mumbai is going to be launched in April. App users can also compare the levels in these cities.   see more 

Seagate on its part is developing and offering innovative products which allow users to access and interpret information quickly and securely, to analyze data and understand patterns and behaviour, and harness stored information for growth and innovation. We are also helping consumers store content so they can store, share and re-live their precious experiences and memories. The more people and businesses embrace the digital age, the more they will need secure, robust and intelligent storage solutions.   See more 

“The Digital India initiative envisions a key role for technology to power country transformation and we believe Cisco can play a key role in working with an ecosystem to bring technology to the masses in areas including healthcare, education, physical security and smart cities. With the Internet of Everything, and our innovation across segments and architectures, we have deepened our ability to drive demand and create new markets,” . See more  

Digitization is at the core of Schneider Electric’s business ethos. It is not merely a strategy but the very way of life at Schneider. “It is how we serve our customers, build bonds with our partners and nurture our employees. We firmly believe in digitizing the complete value chain of our business. Right from component and product level to the overarching software that integrates and digitizes the use of energy, we have been pioneers and we continue to innovate and deliver breakthrough technologies. We digitise the use of energy to make it safe, reliable, green,.   See more