VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

OPPO has unveiled a dashing blue edition of OPPO F5 in collaboration with its brand ambassador – Sidharth Malhotra: OPPO F5 Sidharth Limited Edition. According to the company, this new colour edition continues the success of the F5 series, OPPO’s first full-screen model featuring A.I. Beauty Recognition Technology designed to personalize beautification.  OPPO has also revealed a brand-new microfilm starring Sidharth Malhotra and directed by critically acclaimed film director – Mohit Suri.  Commenting on this new launch, Will Yang, Brand Director, OPPO India, said, “It brings us immense pleasure to offer our consumers another special that will enable them to capture special moments spent with loved ones. OPPO as a brand is focussed on the youth and always innovates its marketing and product strategies to offer unique experiences. The OPPO F5 Sidharth Limited Edition, a blend of innovation and technology, is an effort in that direction. We are extremely happy to coll...

Vivo has collaborated with fashion designer Manish Malhotra and launched "Infinite Red" Vivo V7+ limited edition smartphone targeting millennials in India. The selfie-focussed flagship smartphone comes with 24MP front shooter features a heart-shaped motif at the back. The device was launched in champagne gold and matte black coloured variants in September. Commenting on this, Kenny Zeng, CMO, Vivo India, said, "With the launch of V7+ Manish Malhotra Limited edition, we are providing an opportunity for consumers to express their love in a more elegant and captivating manner." "I am happy to collaborate with Vivo and present the V7+. We have created a phone that symbolises the spirit of youth and infinite love," Malhotra said in a statement.... Read More

From budget year 2017-18, the Government has decided to merge Rail Budget with the Union Budget. The merger of Railway Budget with General Budget is based on the recommendations of the Committee headed by Shri Bibek Debroy, Member, NITI Aayog, and a separate paper on “Dispensing with the Railway Budget” presented by Shri Bibek Debroy along with Shri Kishore Desai. A Committee with representatives from the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Railways examined the issues involved and worked out the procedural details. The salient features of merger and the benefits likely to accrue there from are broadly given below: i. Ministry of Railways will continue to function as a departmentally run commercial undertaking; ii. A separate Statement of Budget Estimates and Demand for Grant will be created for Railways; iii. A single Appropriation Bill, including the estimates of Railways, will be prepared and presented by Ministry of Finance to Parliament and all legislative work connecte...

Quess Corp. has announced that it has signed definitive agreements to buy Monster India and its business in South-East Asia and the Middle East (“Monster”) from Monster Worldwide Inc. and The Care Business of HCL Services (“Care Business”) from HCL Infosystems.  According to the company, the transactions are expected to close in the next few weeks, subject to the fulfilment of customary closing conditions and required statutory approvals.  Monster, a leading online career and recruitment resource with its cutting-edge technology, provides relevant profiles to employers and relevant jobs to jobseekers across industry verticals, experience levels and geographies. Monster, a 20+-year-old marquee internet brand, provides the widest and most sophisticated job-seeking, career management, recruitment and talent management capabilities globally. The acquired business has operations across India, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia,...

Red Hat has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CoreOS, Inc., an innovator and leader in Kubernetes and container-native solutions for a purchase price of $250 million. The acquisition is subject to certain adjustments at closing that are not expected to be material. The transaction is expected to have no material impact to Red Hat's guidance for its fourth fiscal quarter or fiscal year ending February 28, 2018. Red Hat’s acquisition of CoreOS will further its vision of enabling customers to build any application and deploy them in any environment with the flexibility afforded by open source. By combining CoreOS’s complementary capabilities with Red Hat’s already broad Kubernetes and container-based portfolio, including Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat aims to further accelerate adoption and development of hybrid cloud platform for modern application workloads. Paul Cormier, President, Products and Technologies, Red Hat, said, “The next era of technology is being drive...

With the perfect theme designed for this year, Infotech Software Dealers Association (ISODA) is in its 8th edition of TechSummit, held in hotel J W Marriot Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 1st and 4th of February, 2018. This year, TechSummit is sponsored by CISCO as the Platinum sponsor, Checkpoint and Kaspersky as the Gold sponsors, while other vendors which include Redhat, Sophos, Radware, iPSwitch and Stratus are the Silver sponsors and LG participated as the Associate sponsor. The event is attended by 100 key decision makers of the VAR community, members of ISODA who have been working tirelessly to onboard technology sponsors, create an interesting agenda, maximize participation and creating most interactive platform for discussion on Tipping Point: Breaching the finance barrier.... Read More

According to a news source, Brisbane Airport has revealed that passengers arriving and departing can soon be able to pay through cryptocurrency in few stores and F&B outlets at the airport. Brisbane Airport and some retailers have joined hands with TravelbyBit to bring decentralized blockchain-enabled payments to the two terminals. Travellers can use TravelbyBit’s cryptocurrency payment system to dine and shop at stores such as Botanist, Spoon, Windmill & Co. and Forte Espresso, as well as AWPL stores, including Australian Way, Merino Collection, Carry On, Dreamtime Journey and News Travels. The payment system supports Bitcoin, Dash, Ethereum and other digital currencies.... Read More

In Union Budget 2018, as the government has increased the basic custom duty to 20%, the prices of imported smartphones such as Apple will increase by upto 4%. As per the industry experts, the prices may stabilize over the time as local production is expected to increase to 90% as most players assemble phones locally. This step is likely to be in line with boosting manufacturing in India as Apple and Google imports their phones from China. About 75-80% of the phones sold in India are made locally, as most players operating here prefer to manufacture locally to take advantage of the duty differential versus imports. The duty increase would be the third instance in the last 12 months. In February 2017, the government imposed a 10% import duty which it increased to 15% in December, and now to 20%.... Read More

In the Union Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed to set up 5 lakh hotspots which will provide broadband to 5 crore Indians and government has allocated a fund of Rs 10,000 crore under telecom infrastructure.  To hasten the adoption of 5G, the Department of Telecom (DoT) along with IIT Chennai will support the establishment of indigenous test bed for 5G technologies.... Read More

In the inauguration of “Cyber Surakshit Bharat”, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Alphons Kannanthanam expressed concern over spying via devices imported from "not-so-friendly country", especially from the neighbour countries. The minister stated this at the in CISO conclave held in Delhi, where he launched the Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative. The minister also mentioned the fear of stealing somebody’s personal data by the cyber thieves even if the device is switched off. As the equipments used in the device are created by the countries which are non friendly with us. And also they can use our data without facing many problems, as spying is getting easier day by day with the easy availability of devices. Broadly, like a number of countries, India imports various communication devices and infrastructure from Chinese firms which are known for aggressive pricing.... Read More

Now one can create their own UPI ID and link their bank account for faster payments. Send money directly to any bank account at zero per cent charge. It is all possible with the launch of Paytm BHIM UPI app. Paytm Payments Bank Savings Account holders can now order a physical debit card from the App. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder , PayTM said, "Shop easily at any shop or withdraw money from any ATM with your debit card. Paytm had launched its physical debit card on January 18, 2018." Paytm , the pioneer company into digital payment , announced last year that they will be rolling out Paytm debit card (RuPay card) back in 2017. Keeping their promise alive, the digital payment company is now entering into physical banking. In the recent announcement on Twitter that they announced that they are launching the all new debit card with no transactional charges. The user will get an interest of four percent per annum every month.... Read More

BT has announced the launch of a new service to provide global businesses with direct access to IBM Cloud via the BT network. BT Cloud Connect Direct for IBM offers businesses the benefits of highly predictable, security-rich and reliable network performance when building and deploying critical business applications and data on the IBM Cloud. With Cloud Connect Direct for IBM, BT customers receive a dedicated, high-performance connection to the IBM Cloud so they can access services, including compute, network and storage infrastructure as well as an extensive catalogue spanning AI, Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), data and analytics capabilities. Direct cloud connectivity helps businesses achieve better performance, security and availability compared to connecting over the open internet. Cloud Connect Direct for IBM is being delivered into IBM Cloud data centers in the UK via IBM Cloud Direct Link, a network service designed to secure and accelerate data transfer b...

IBM inventors have received a record of 9,043 patents in 2017, marking the company’s 25th consecutive year of U.S. patent leadership and crossing the 100,000-patent milestone. The new patents were granted to a diverse group of more than 8,500 IBM researchers, engineers, scientists and designers in 47 different U.S. states and 47 countries. “For the past 25 years, IBM’s patent leadership has changed the way the world works with advancements critical to the modern era of computing,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and CEO. “Today, nearly half of our patents are pioneering advancements in AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, blockchain and quantum computing – and all are aimed at helping our clients create smarter businesses.” As more and more enterprises conduct business on the cloud, IBM inventors received in 2017 more than 1,900 cloud patents, including a patent for a system that uses unstructured data about world or local events to forecast cloud resource ...

The Indian mass-transit operator Metro Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) Company has awarded an order of approximately Rs. 580 Crore (Euro 76.04 million) to the consortium of Siemens Ltd. India and Siemens AG, Germany for electrification of the 39.2-kilometer Metro Express Link in Ahmedabad. The line, currently under construction, will run in Ahmedabad city in two corridors. Siemens will be responsible for the complete electrification of the new double-track Metro line. In addition, Siemens will also provide a SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system for monitoring and controlling the traction power. “Metro will play a pivotal role in enhancing quality of life and economic growth of the city and the region. Mobility is an area of expertise for us and Siemens will continue to partner with the government to help improve connectivity and public infrastructure,” said Tilak Raj Seth, Executive Vice-President, Siemens Ltd. and CEO, Mobility Divi...

If reports are to be believed, Apple’s legendary and historical operating system, Lisa will soon be released by The Computer History Museum situated in California. The OS will be for free as an open source this year. The source code of the Apple's Lisa computer which predates the Mac has been recovered and it's being reviewed by Apple itself, according to the Computer History Museum. Apple Lisa is a desktop developed by Apple released on January 19, 1983 and was one of the first personal computers to offer a graphical user interface in a machine aimed at individual business users. It also happened to be the first personal computer by Apple to feature support for a mouse. Al Kossow, a software curator at the museum reiterated, "Just wanted to let everyone know the sources to the OS and applications were recovered, I converted them to Unix end of line conventions and spaces for Pascal tabs after recovering the files using Disk Image Chef, and they...

In today's digital age, consumers and business are now embedded in newer technologies. More technology means more jobs. To win in the new Digital Age, there is a race among companies to get the required tech talent they need to help them transform. Sustained technology investment has led to millions of skilled employment opportunities across the country. Technology is a great leveler. Digital India is the programme to improve digital connectivity and uses IT services to deliver various services and information to people in India. We are in the sweet spot on the demographic curve, with the majority of our population young and productive. The programme recognizes at the onset that the young Indian talent still remains untapped. The potential of Information Technology needs to be channelized and innovations like recharge sachets of Rs 5 and Rs 10 can fan a revolution that will transform India into the world’s second-largest telecom market in terms of mobile phone users and...

SCADA system helps Ahmedabad water department to save Rs 6 cr. on electricity bill. At a time when other metropolitan cities are not getting enough water supply due to breakdown in the pipeline network, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has been giving presentations to other urban local bodies on how its water department saved Rs 6 crore last year on the electricity bill. AMC’s water department gives credit to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) not only for the saving but also for utilizing 23 million liter per day (MLD) water that was going to waste. The project includes monitoring of water quantity, quality and energy parameters of 148 water distribution centers, four french wells and four water treatment plants. We will add 51 water distribution centers in the system,” says Jagdish Patel, City Engineer. He added, “After one-year monitoring on the system, we found that we have saved Rs 6 crore as electricity bill and also utilized 23 MLD wate...

Apple developers work to explore the possibilities to deliver amazing user experiences by using latest advances in Apple platforms directly, this seems to be a huge business opportunity and who make apps for the iPhone and iPad earned 30 percent more in 2017 than a year earlier, though it was still a slowdown from growth in 2016. The App Store is home to the most innovative apps in the world and in the past 12 months alone, downloads have grown over 70 percent. Developers who make apps for iOS earned $26.5 billion in 2017, Apple said in a statement Thursday, as users snapped up breakout hits including games like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, and Monument Valley 2. In 2016, developers earned $20 billion, a 40 percent increase from the year earlier. Apple said its App Store had a record-breaking holiday season, culminating with $300 million in purchases made on New Year’s Day 2018, up from $240 million in the prior year. Developers typically get 70 percent of that revenue...

World’s largest tech show Consumer Technology Association (CES 2018 ) will kick off in Las Vegas from January 9 to 12. About 4,000 companies - many of them start-ups - are expected to arrive in the city. The event is most popular globally for the consumer gadgets. With newer disruptions getting innovated, the show will also showcase artificial intelligence, automobiles, medicine, marketing and even agriculture. Artificial intelligence is the culmination of software, algorithms and sensors working together to make your everyday appliances smarter and more automated. It is AI that is telling the door to unlock when the camera recognizes you, or sending an alert to your phone when sensors detect a person. Tech companies are looking to push internet connectivity beyond products in your home and they will demonstrate prototypes of devices embedded with some of these sensors with the hope that cities will soon begin adopting these technologies within their infrastructure.... ...

Is Aadhaar really safe? Should I link my bank details and my personal number to Aadhaar? These are some the questions that people keep asking despite UIDAI asserting last November that “Aadhaar data is fully safe and secure and there has been no data leak or breach at UIDAI.” But you will be surprised to learn that there are several rackets going on that can help in getting unrestricted access to details for any of the more than 1 billion Aadhaar numbers created in India thus far. And it just takes Rs 500 paid through Paytm and 10 minutes to do that. On further investigation by a 3rd party agency it has been revealed that an “agent” of the group running the racket created a “gateway” and gives gave a login ID and password. One can enter any Aadhaar number in the portal, and instantly get all particulars that an individual may have submitted to the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), including name, address, postal code (PIN), photo, phone number and email. ...