VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

Cruise bags $2 billion from Microsoft in new equity round:  Cruise   has raised $2 billion in a new equity round that has pushed its valuation up to $30 billion and delivered   Microsoft   as an investor and partner. GM, Honda and other institutional investors have also put more capital into Cruise as the autonomous vehicle company inches closer to commercializing its technology.   Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella  said in a statement, “Advances in digital technology are redefining every aspect of our work and life, including how we move people and goods. As Cruise and GM’s preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream.”   While Microsoft’s capital is important, the partnership might provide equal and longer-term value for Cruise, at least in the two companies’ views. Under the long-term strategic partnership, Cruise will use Azure, Microsoft’s cloud and edge computing platform, for its ye...

Savex Technologies Makes a Debut in India’s Multi-experience Industry with Avaya OneCloud Savex Technologies , the third largest information and communication technology distributor in India today announced its partnership with   Avaya, a global leader in solutions   to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration.   This alliance gives Savex technologies’ partner community access to Avaya’s broad portfolio of products and services ranging from cloud collaboration solutions, customer experience technologies and gives Avaya India & SAARC access to Savex’s extensive network of over 10,000 reseller partners.   With this agreement, Savex Technologies will also set foot in the customer experience and workstream collaboration industry. At the heart of Avaya’s value is Avaya OneCloud, a unique hybrid delivery architecture that protects investments, prevents disruption, and ensures multiexperience continuity across each phase of a personalized cloud journey. Thi...

TCS chosen by Three UK to configure mobile network for its ongoing 5G services rollout: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)   announced that it has been chosen by Three UK telco to configure its mobile network for its ongoing 5G services rollout. Three UK is deploying a new 5G radio access network which is already live in 175 towns and cities in the UK, across more than 1,000 sites.   With this alliance, TCS will configure the core network for new site deployments, site upgrades, and optimization of 3G and 4G technologies.   As per TCS, its software will hasten the configuration process and reduce manual errors, enabling first-time correct configuration.   “These improvements will help Three deliver faster, secure, and more reliable 5G services to its customers,” the company said.   “Three UK’s 5G roll-out is underpinned by our agility in bringing services to market. Our decision to partner with TCS was based on this need to deliver at pace whilst being flexible to ...

Fabindia appoints Kunal Mehta as the Group CTO : Fabindia has named Kunal Mehta, Head of Information Technology, Raymond Limited as Group Chief Technology Officer. He will be based out of New Delhi.

“Atmanirbhar Bharat means India is an active participant in the global economy”: Ravi Shankar Prasad : Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Government of India clarified that Atmanirbhar Bharat doesn’t mean isolated India. “Atmanirbhar Bharat means India is an active participant in the global economy and this is the crux of the whole PLI scheme.

Will the future of cybersecurity be passwordless? :  Will the future of cybersecurity be passwordless?

Cyber Breaches will hugely impact businesses in 2021 : Cyber Breaches will hugely impact businesses in 2021

Rajkumar Rao on Priyanka Chopra & Shahrukh Khan:  Rajkummar Rao   is one of the underrated actors in Bollywood. Known for his acting more than looks, Rao will be soon seen in The White Tiger, alongside   Priyanka Chopra Jones   and   Adarsh Gourav . The film based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Aravind Adiga, under the same name, is directed by Ramin Bahrani and will be released on Netflix on January 22.   Rajkumar while talking in an interview about working with diva Priyanka Chopra Jones said, "Priyanka is phenomenal. She is a very chilled out person, a global star who never made us feel that she was the biggest star on our set. I have always been a big admirer of her work. It's fun to work with great actors as it enhances your performance and Priyanka did just that to me. She even helped me out in my scenes. I look forward to working with her more and hopefully, it will happen soon.   Rajkumar also spilled the beans about his inspiration i...

IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta on Hackers trying to open communication channel with them:  IndiGo   reported on December 31st that some of its servers were subject to a hacking incident earlier that month. The airline said that it was able to restore the systems within a short span of time with minimal impact. Though it alerted the stakeholders on New Year's Eve that some segments of data servers were breached, and hence, there is a possibility that some internal documents may get uploaded by the hackers on public websites and platforms.   IndiGo's CEO Ronojoy Dutta  says that it's hard to know what kind of data may have been extracted by the hackers, and the airline is in the wait-and-watch mode. "I don't know what the hackers got exactly. We tried to find out but it's hard to exactly pinpoint what might have gone, and what might not have gone. Honestly, we don't know at this point. There has been almost zero impact. We got an early warning, and people jumped on...

ThoughtWorks gets $720 million investment:  ThoughtWorks   announced that   GIC, Siemens AG , Fidelity Management and Research LLC, and Mubadala Investment Company have invested $720 million in the company.   The proceeds will be used to repurchase equity from existing investors. The new commitment of capital comes as the company continues to invest in growth and international expansion.   "This placement is a very positive indicator of how strong our company and brand are perceived in the market. It's wonderful that GIC, Siemens, Fidelity and Mubadala see ThoughtWorks to be a strong investment and this is an endorsement of the strength and relevance of our business and people," said  Guo Xiao, President and Chief Executive Officer, ThoughtWorks .   "Siemens strongly believes in the growth potential of supporting the digitalization of businesses across all industries. We believe that ThoughtWorks is the right partner with outstanding capabilities. I am...

Manikarnika Returns: The Legend of Didda sequel to commence soon:  2019 period drama   Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi , that created history will once again hit the screen soon.   Kangana Ranaut   has announced the sequel titled Manikarnika Returns: The Legend of Didda. This film is like a tribute to real life heroic queens. The earlier film paid tribute to Rani Lakshmibai, the Queen of Jhansi. The sequel is a tribute to the heroic queen of Kashmir, Didda. Kangana will star in the film which is touted to be bigger and better than the earlier film.   The new film will be bigger and mounted on an international scale, adding that the team intends to make a world class franchise of real life women heroes, sources say. The idea is to bring forgotten women heroes who have constructed the true identity of Bharat, the source added.   Turns out, work on the film has already started. Kangana and producer Kamal Jain will join hands to bring back the franchise after ...

Indian Army signs a $20 million contract with ideaForge to procure SWITCH UAV:  The   Indian Army   has signed an approximately $20 million contract for undisclosed quantities of a high-altitude variant of   ideaForge's SWITCH UAV   which will be delivered over a period of 1 year. ideaForge has been awarded this contract after it emerged as the only vendor that qualified the operational requirements in an evaluation done in real-world conditions, for a fast-track procurement. The contract marks a strategic shift in the Indian defence procurement process as the Indian Army goes on an aggressive modernization drive. It has also cemented ideaForge’s position as India's largest manufacturer of drones for defence, homeland security and industrial applications.   SWITCH UAV is an indigenous system built to cater for the most demanding surveillance operations of the Indian Forces. This Fixed Wing VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing) UAV can be deployed at high alt...

Through non-profit arm, Elon Musk contributes $5 million to Khan Academy:  Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX CEO   has donated $5 million to   e-learning platform Khan Academy .   Sal Khan, Founder, Khan Academy   in a video posted on Twitter said he wants to give a huge shout and thank you to Elon Musk and everyone at the Musk foundation.   Khan said, "For their credible generous support for Khan Academy, they just recently gave a $5 million donation to Khan academy. This is going to allow us to accelerate all sorts of content and engage millions of students around the world. We have about 200 million hours of learning. I view this type of investment in what we're doing is really foundational for us to be able to build a multi generational institution, so that future Elon Musks of the world are also able to tap into their potential.”   As millions of kids take online school classes from home globally including in India, the government along with the private...

Pega buys Qurious.io for AI-powered Speech Analytics:  Pegasystems Inc.   announced its acquisition of   Qurious.io, Inc ., a cloud-based real-time speech analytics solution powered by artificial intelligence (AI) for customer service teams. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.   Qurious.io’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering uses speech-to-text, natural language processing (NLP), and emotion detection capabilities to analyze the dialog within each customer service call as it happens. The software then provides agents with real-time insights and coaching so they can improve customer interactions, make better recommendations, and boost customer loyalty and sales. The company was founded in 2016 in San Francisco by recent Forbes 30-Under-30 winners  Sabrina Atienza, CEO , and  George Ramonov, CTO .   “With its deep customer service and AI pedigree, Pega will enable us to bring our intelligent speech analytics software to hundreds of the most im...

9 flights fly carrying 6.5 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine:  Nine flights will transport 56.5 lakh doses of   COVID-19 vaccine   from Pune to 13 cities across the country on Tuesday. Four airlines will take charge of the operations, says   Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.   Vaccine movement has started, he said on Twitter, adding that the first two flights operated by "SpiceJet and GoAir from Pune to Delhi and Chennai have taken off".   "Today  @airindiain   @flyspicejet   @goairlinesindia  &  @IndiGo6E  will operate 9 flights from Pune with 56.5 lakh doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow & Chandigarh," he said on Twitter. The Central government on Monday placed firm orders in advanced commitments for over six crore doses of workers in the first phase of the nationwide vaccination drive beginning January 16.   The fir...

Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk discloses funding FB rival app Signal:  After the attack on the United States Capitol by the supporters of outgoing   President Trump ,   Elon Musk   had taken to twitter and made a thinly veiled attack on social networks, specifically Facebook Inc and its   CEO Mark Zuckerberg , without directly naming any individual or entity.   Facebook  - the owner of the rival messaging app  WhatsApp  - is also mired in controversy after it unveiled a new privacy policy for the latter, which comes into effect in February, reported the Verge.   The privacy policy reportedly no longer provides users the option to opt-out of data sharing with Facebook but instead outlines how WhatsApp will share data with its social networking parent.   Data to be shared includes “battery level, signal strength, app version, browser information, mobile network and connection information (including phone number, mobile operator or ...