9 Social Scams to Be Aware Of

“Social media scams are increasingly popular,” said Terrence Tang, Senior Director of Consumer Business, Asia Pacific, Trend Micro. “They lure users to install third-party apps through social media posts or trick users to click on phishing sites that cause malware infection. Users are advised to be ever vigilant when they surf online. Always check the source of posted links and apps. Change social media passwords regularly. Install an app that offers privacy protection, like Trend Micro Dr. Safety free app, to protect your device and personal information from prying eyes.”

Here are 9 popular social media scams Trend Micro has identified:

1.          The Facebook Color Changer app: This app appeals to users with the feature to personalize their Facebook color. But it also leads users to phishing sites and tricks them to share the app with friends. It also uses a tutorial video to trick users to click on an ad. It hijacks users’ profile and spams users’ friends. It even infects mobile devices with malware.

2.          Who Viewed Your Facebook Profile app: This Facebook scam lures users with messages from friends or ads posted on their walls and invites users to check who viewed their Facebook profiles. Once clicked on, users’ profiles and their social network will be exposed to the scammer.

Quikr to launch its classified app on Windows platform

Quikr, India’s one online classifieds company, joined hands with Microsoft to launch the Quikr app on the Windows Phone Store. Through this strategic partnership Quikr and Microsoft have worked closely to make the design appealing to users of the Windows platform and thereby bring the power of the Quikr classifieds marketplace to Windows Phone users.

The app comes equipped with open source software stack that has been used to build the backend while the front-end of the app has been built using native SDKs. This technology makes the performance of the app, fast and user friendly. This app is aimed at reaching out to a wider audience of smart phone users offering them the convenience of trading online.

Emerging markets banks invest to gain innovation leadership: Study

Infosys has launched its Innovation in Retail Banking 2014 report. The sixth annual study, commissioned by Infosys and conducted by Efma, surveyed over 100 retail banks around the world. The latest report has revealed that more banks in fast growing and rapidly developing markets display greater ambition for becoming innovation leaders in delivering superior customer value.  They do this by investing more in research and development, compared to their peers in mature markets.

The study also revealed that banks across the globe, especially from more mature economies, are increasing their innovation investments in 2014 compared to 2013 to keep pace with increasing customer expectations and respond to new market entrants.  While new competitors include established technology companies and telcos, there is increasing collaboration with start-up companies to help drive innovation in banks.

Watson Supercomputer at work, to mine millions of tweets

While IBM has entered into a parntership with microblogging site Twitter claiming that it will assist businesses to understand their customers, markets and trends, it has got its Watson supercomputer at work. Twitter is a hot bed of popular discussions on multiple topics. The outcomes will be helpful for companies to understand a variety of trends that can help them take informed decisions for their businesses.

The statement issued by Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO, pans out well when he says that the partnership will change “the way business decisions are made - from identifying emerging market opportunities to better engaging clients, partners and employees.”

Consumers shun Dropbox, Facebook and Google post the Snowden expose

On the heels of Edward Snowden’s advice to switch from Dropbox, Facebook and Google to services that place a high priority on security and privacy, F-Secure is releasing survey results that show that many people are willing to do just that. The survey, which polled people in six countries, also shows that a majority of people have changed some of their Internet habits in recent months due to increased privacy concerns.

In a recent video interview, whistleblower Snowden cautioned viewers, saying such major Internet services are dangerous and should be avoided. And in fact, 53% of survey respondents said they’d be willing to switch from services like Google to other more private services to avoid search-based profiling. 56% of people also said they have become more wary of US-based Internet services in the past year. 46% of people said they would be willing to pay to be sure that none of their personal data transits via the US. And 70% said they are concerned about the potential of mass surveillance by intelligence agencies in countries through which their data may be passing.

Ixia and NSS Labs partner for network security

Ixia entered into a partnership with NSS Labs, an information security research and advisory company, to provide customers with the tools and knowledge needed to test and validate network security in their labs. In combination with Ixia’s award-winning security solutions, the new NSS Test Packs provide enterprises and equipment manufacturers the ability to find network security issues and failures in their own labs prior to deployment, saving time and costs.

Network security test cycles, in pre-deployment enterprise networks and in equipment manufacturer R&D, are critical to ensuring the resiliency of enterprise networks and the corresponding networking equipment. However, the traditional test cycles can be lengthy and expensive. Using Ixia’s security solutions along with the NSS Test Packs, enterprises and equipment manufacturers now have a streamlined way to benefit from the gold standard of testing to evaluate and test products for performance, resiliency and efficacy.

Tata Sky selects Genesys to deploy contact center solutions

Tata Sky, a Direct-to-Home (DTH) provider, has associated with Genesys to deploy Genesys Customer Experience Platform enhance service delivery to its 13.5 million subscribers.

The association is an endeavor to empower its workforce to service customers seamlessly across multiple touch points. The platform provides greater efficiencies in Tata Sky’s contact center operations and provides subscribers with new, personalized self-service applications to provide customers with a complete user friendly experience.

“Tata Sky is pleased to partner with Genesys in our quest to bring superior quality television entertainment to its viewers. The system is clearly the best in class and offers cost savings, operational efficiencies and visibility into contact center operations,” said Harit Nagpal, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tata Sky.

Wickedleak Smartphone buyers to get repairing services at doorstep

Mobile phone company Wickedleak has entered into key agreements with logistic firms Gojavas (Arm of Jabonng) and DTDC to provide door-to-door delivery and repairing service for its Wickedleak wammy smartphones customers.The customers will receive their serviced phone within 24 hrs-48 hrs from Wickedleak.

"We are working on the experience side of Wickedleak customers. Besides product quality, we will provide services to customer at their doorstep in 2400+ Locations which 103 Cities Spread across India.

The top 10 cloud myths

Cloud computing is uniquely susceptible to the perils of myths due to the nature, confusion and hype surrounding it, according to Gartner, Inc. These myths slow things down, impede innovation and induce fear, thus distracting from real progress, innovation and outcomes.

"Cloud computing, by its very nature, is uniquely vulnerable to the risks of myths. It is all about capabilities delivered as a service, with a clear boundary between the provider of the service and the consumer," said David Mitchell Smith, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "From a consumer perspective, 'in the cloud' means where the magic happens, where the implementation details are supposed to be hidden. So it should be no surprise that such an environment is rife with myths and misunderstandings."

Zebra Technologies completes acquisition of Motorola’ Enterprise Business

Zebra Technologies Corporation and Motorola Solutions announced that Zebra has completed the acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ Enterprise business for $3.45 billion in cash. The transaction was funded with $200 million of cash on hand and $3.25 billion in new debt.

MapR claims its customers achieve more than 5X RoI

MapR Technologies, a provider of the Apache Hadoop with over 500 paying customers worldwide, released at Strata Conference + Hadoop World 2014 results of independent, third-party research that indicated a majority of MapR customers experienced payback in less than 12 months and greater than 5X returns on their investment. More than 50 companies that responded to the survey also had experience using other Hadoop distributions and even those reported similar, large returns, with 65% reporting greater than 5X returns and 40% reporting greater than 10X returns using the MapR Distribution.

According to the September 2014 survey of MapR customers conducted by TechValidate, an independent research organization, respondents who previously used another distribution cited high availability, performance, data integration, data protection, and multi-tenancy as reasons for selecting MapR. More than 80% of experienced Hadoop customers also identified the in-Hadoop NoSQL database, MapR-DB, as a significant differentiator. MapR-DB recently received from Forrester Research the highest score for current offering among all reviewed vendors in The Forrester Wave™: NoSQL Key-Value Databases, Q3 2014.MapR, with its comprehensive and integrated NoSQL and Hadoop platform, enables real-time business impact while maintaining architectural simplicity.

Android app training soars in popularity in India

Sulekha.com shared the results of a study undertaken on online search trends for “Computer training” courses in India.  

This study analyzed of 2,737,349 user needs on Sulekha.com’s from Tier 1 (New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Ahmedabad) and Tier 2 (Thrissur, Agra, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Kochin, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Jalandhar) cities, in the last one year (September 2013 - September 2014); and the database of over 20,000 Computer training service listings.

The growth in search for computer training courses increased from 20% in previous year (2012-13) to 40% in (2013-14). Owing to the growing Smartphone market in India, there is 171% increase in online search for Android Application Development training. Engineering related computer courses like Auto CAD training saw an increase of 116% in 2014 as compared to 2013.

Ola to Raise Series D Funding of $210mn Led by SoftBank

Ola (formerly Olacabs), India’s mobile app for cab-booking confirmed a definitive agreement to raising $210mn (approx. INR 1260 cr.) from SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc. (SMIC) and existing investors, Tiger Global, Matrix Partners India and Steadview Capital. Ola in the last two months has launched operations across 9 new Indian cities taking its overall presence to 19 as well as new and innovative categories across existing cities. Such rapid growth has made Ola, the first choice of transportation across every city of its operation. Ola is the largest and fastest growing cab-booking app with over 33,000 cabs on the mobile app available for customers to book from. This fresh investment led by SoftBank will further propel Ola to be an integral part of India’s transportation ecosystem across newer cities by making available an efficient, reliable and convenient option for users and service providers.

Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Corp. said, “Since SoftBank’s foundation, our mission has been to contribute to people’s lives through the Information Revolution. We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market.”

Worldwide Shipments of 3D Printers to Reach More Than 217,000 in 2015

Worldwide shipments of 3D printers (3DPs) will reach 217,350 units in 2015, up from 108,151 in 2014, according to Gartner, Inc.'s latest forecast. 3D printer shipments will more than double every year between 2015 and 2018, by which time worldwide shipments are forecast to reach more than 2.3 million.

"As we noted last year, the 3D printer market is at an inflection point," said Pete Basiliere, research vice president at Gartner. "Unit shipment growth rates for 3D printers, which languished in the low single and double digits per year throughout the 30 years since the first 3D printers were invented, are poised to increase dramatically beginning in 2015. As radical as the forecast numbers may seem, bear in mind that even the 2.3 million shipments that we forecast will be sold in 2018 are a small fraction of the total potential market of consumers, businesses and government organizations worldwide."

Microsoft to offer unlimited OneDrive cloud storage to Office 365 Subscribers

Today, Microsoft announced that all Office 365 customers will get unlimited OneDrive storage at no additional cost. The roll out will start today, first targeting Office 365 Home, Personal and University plan subscribers. More details around the roll out for OneDrive for Business customers will be shared through the standard Office 365 roadmap website.

Today’s announcement of unlimited storage is just one small part of Microsoft’s broader vision to deliver a single experience across work and life in order to help people store, sync, share and collaborate on all the files that are important to them. During our earnings call last week we mentioned there are now over 7 million Office 365 Home and Personal Subscribers.

Cloud Plus to facilitate capacity on demand with Brocade

Cloud Plus, a wholesale provider of private cloud solutions, is turning to Brocade for its next-generation data center and MPLS network infrastructure. The company is applying its own on-demand playbook to the network upgrade by leveraging the pay-as-you-go flexibility of the Brocade Network Subscription acquisition model.

Cloud Plus saw its revenues grow by 191 percent in the financial year ending in June 2013. It achieved 147 percent growth levels in fiscal year 2014, and is on schedule to exceed that growth in 2015. The data traffic running over its network has actually been growing at an even faster pace, as a result of the telecommunication industry’s falling costs for network bandwidth and the ability of Cloud Plus partners to execute larger deals that deliver data transfer at a lower price.

Kerala Government to announce new startup and innovation policy

Kerala government will soon announce a new startup and innovation policy to promote entrepreneurship, Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy announced on Monday as he inaugurated the first phase of the Technology Innovation Zone (TIZ), an ambitious project under the Technopark-Technology Business Incubator (TBI), at the Kinfra Hi-Tech Park in Kalamassery.

“The draft of the new startup and innovation policy is ready and we will be unveiling it soon,” Shri Chandy said, adding that the government will also chair a meeting of University Vice-Chancellors in the state to finalise a programme to provide support to student entrepreneurs.

The newly inaugurated 10,000 sqft work space at TIZ will be handed over to Startup Village for providing incubation support to around 40 startup firms. 

“The objective of the Innovation Zone is to provide the maximum possible support to young entrepreneurs across a number of industry verticals, apart from telecom and IT. At least eight different sectors like agriculture, electronics, food processing, tourism etc have been identified for providing incubation support” Shri Oommen Chandy said in his inaugural address.

NSDC and AskMe join hands to enhance employability of youth

AskMe, a consumer Internet Company and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) entered into a significant partnership to enhance skilling and employability of youth across India. Through this partnership AskMe aims to support youth aspiring to build successful careers through training programs conducted by NSDC partners across India. For this, an agreement was signed by Mr. Dilip Chenoy, MD & CEO - NSDC and Mr Naveen Luthra, VP - Group Strategic Alliances, AskMe.

Under this partnership, AskMe will list all NSDC authorized training centers across the country, operating under Public Private Partnership model, on Askme.com. These listings will enable youth to locate a training center in their close vicinity and reach out to them and acquiring new skills in the sector/ job role they are interested in. The training will be imparted across various sectors like leather goods, manufacturing, automobiles, finance, healthcare, electronics, handloom and handicrafts, software etc.

Referral based recruiting platform MyRefers receives Pre-Series A Funding

MyRefers (www.myrefers.com), claimed to be an innovative recruiting platform is all set to change the hiring process. MyRefers is working towards creating a skills marketplace powered by referrals and enabled by data intelligence. The Delhi based start-up had received Pre-Series A Funding from Bedrock Ventures, a leading India based VC firm.

Delighted at the development, Lalit Bhagia, Founder and CEO, MyRefers said, “I am excited about the leap the product is expected to make with the funding from Bedrock Ventures. We hope to bring about an inspirational shift in recruitments, after the last one brought about by Job-boards. It is an established fact that ‘Referrals’ is the best and most trusted source of hiring in organizations today. Unlike some job-boards that have recognized this and are including referrals as another option within their current offering, we have built a technology platform that is based only on the concept of referrals and enables the organization to reach out to a larger network without compromising on the parameters that makes employee referral schemes the most powerful and effective way of recruiting.

Tips and tricks for shooting beautiful pictures on Diwali

 It’s Diwali time; time for festivities, friends and relatives, lights and fireworks, food and gifts, and prayers for prosperity. It’s the ideal occasion to capture the memories of our loved ones and the festivity while experimenting with multiple styles of photography. Equipped with the right tools and technique, one can capture an array of experiences; from macro shot of a lamp to long exposure shot of fireworks, from family portraits to candid shots on streets, Diwali is the time for you to unleash the photographer in you.

Follow these quick tips and tricks by Adobe’s very own Vipul Vaibhav, video editor and avid photographer, and Abhishek Mukherjee, solution consultant, to make this Diwali a memorable one!

WalkOn App rewards people for activity

With the launch of its free Android app, “WalkOn”, Mobile Health Solutions (MHS) promises to usher in a new era of “health-e” commerce where businesses walk their talk on consumer well-being. The app features free products/services and exclusive discounts and deals from 20+ brands in the form of rewards ‘earned’ by users for simply walking, jogging or cycling. The rewards offer real value incentives to people across India to lead active lifestyles and gives businesses the chance to stand for health and stand out from competition.

“WalkOn converts fitness into a currency, it makes sweat pay!” says Shwetank Verma, co-founder and ex-PWC chartered accountant and intrapeneur for a multi-billion dollar fund. “WalkOn’s innovation is to combine people’s love for retail with their desire to get and stay fit. It is about making prevention fun rather than a chore.”

Telenor Group completes 100% ownership of Telewings in India

Telenor Group has completed the acquisition of the 26 per cent ownership stake in Telewings, held by Lakshdeep Investment & Finance.  As a result, Telenor now takes full ownership of the company that operates under the brand name Uninor. The process was finalized after Telenor received approval from the Indian government's Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to increase its stake from 74 per cent to 100 per cent.

"Telenor Group has a long-term view on India, and we are encouraged by the strong growth of our Indian operation. The company continues to capture market share every month and is leading in new subscriber additions in many of its circles," said Sigve Brekke, EVP of Telenor Group and Chairman of the Board of Telewings.

LINE achieves 30 million users in India

LINE has announced that it has achieved an outstanding 30 million registered LINE user base in India on October 17th, 2014.

May 2013 marked the formal launch of LINE in India. The story of LINE continued with a TVC launch in June 2013 with Katrina Kaif and by October 2013, LINE was already shining brightly with 10 million users, increased to 15 million in December 2013. It now stands at an astonishing 30 million as of today.

"In a short span of time since entering the Indian market, we have surpassed another milestone of 30 million users. Optimal user experience is in the heart of every feature that we bring for our users in India, as we make sure that our new features and services take our users beyond the usual messaging communication experience. As the leading global mobile platform, LINE now offers a variety of communication, entertainment and information features for all users in India to enjoy.”- Damandeep Singh Soni, Spokesperson from LINE

JDA Software appoints Baljit Dail Chief Executive Officer

​​JDA Software Group announced that Baljit (Bal) Dail, a senior technology executive and JDA’s Chairman of the Board, has been named JDA chief executive officer after assuming the CEO position on an interim basis in May 2014.

“The potential for JDA now, and into the future, is tremendous and I am excited about the opportunity to continue leading this innovative company,” said Dail. “Our game-changing suite of solutions spanning retail and supply chain planning and execution, coupled with our deep expertise in many industries and regions, puts us in a perfect position to deliver real business value and results to leading companies around the world."

IMImobile acquires TextLocal

IMImobile, a provider of software and services announced the acquisition of TxtLocal Limited, an award winning self-service, cloud based, mobile messaging business.

Named one of the fastest growing technology companies in 2013 by Deloitte and GP Bullhound in 2014, TextLocal is the leading mobile communications company focused on enabling SMBs to harness the capabilities of mobile messaging. Based in Chester and Malvern, TextLocal has served over 120,000 businesses, including customers such as Debenhams, Paddy Power, Greenpeace, Groupon and P&O Ferries

IMImobile has identified significant opportunity to leverage its global footprint to introduce TextLocal’s messaging platform to new international markets, industries and clients. The SMB mobile messaging market is forecasted by many analysts as one of the fastest growing segments and the TextLocal platform will form an essential element of IMImobile’s mobile engagement product portfolio to capitalise on this trend.

Worldwide Semiconductor capital spending to increase by More Than 11 Percent in 2014

Worldwide semiconductor capital spending is projected to total $64.5 billion in 2014, an increase of 11.4 percent from 2013 spending of $57.8 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. Capital equipment spending will increase 17.1 percent in 2014, driven by strong memory average selling prices and increased demand for consumer products (see Table 1).

For 2014, Gartner's forecast for semiconductor equipment has been increased slightly from the previous forecast. Longer term, Gartner expects modest growth through the semiconductor cycle, with just a modest pause in the equipment market expected in 2016.

"While capital spending outperformed equipment spending in 2013, the reverse will hold true for 2014," said David Christensen, senior research analyst at Gartner. "Total capital spending will grow 11.4 percent in 2014, compared with 7.1 percent in our prior forecast — a result of Samsung increasing its announced spending plans to $14 billion. Equipment spending will increase 17.1 percent, as manufacturers pull back on new fab construction and concentrate on ramping up new capacity instead."

Avaya gets 2014 Asia Pacific Enterprise Networking Customer Value Enhancement Award

Avaya announced that it has been awarded the 2014 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Enterprise Networking Customer Value Enhancement Award.

At an award presentation on October 16th, Andrew Hindmarch, Asia Pacific Networking Leader, Avaya, received the award from Andrew Milroy, Vice President, ICT Research, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific.

The customer value enhancement award is given to a company which has enhanced customer value through its networking offerings and recorded revenue growth in its networking product line. Criteria include both the business impact achieved - including growth, customer acquisition, growth potential and operational efficiency - and customer impact, based on price performance value, and the customer experience across the entire process.

Sales of Tablets Will Represent Less Than 10 Percent of All Devices in 2014

Tablet sales growth is slowing in 2014 as new hardware buyers turn to alternative devices and existing users extend the lifetime of their tablets. Gartner, Inc. estimates that tablet sales worldwide will reach 229 million units in 2014, an 11 percent increase from 2013, representing 9.5 percent of total worldwide sales of devices in 2014. In 2013, tablet sales grew 55 percent.

Worldwide combined shipments of devices (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) for 2014 are estimated to reach 2.4 billion units in 2014, a 3.2 percent increase from 2013 (see Table 1). "The device market continues to evolve, with the relationship between traditional PCs, different form factor ultramobiles (clamshells, hybrids and tablets) and mobile phones becoming increasingly complex," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.

Opus Software names Anand Ramakrishnan as President and CEO

Opus Software announced the appointment of Anand Ramakrishnan as   President and CEO of the company. He takes over the position from Ramesh Mengawade (ex- CEO of Opus Software and ElectraCard Solutions) who will continue to be with the company as Executive Chairman. The move is part of Opus Software’s growth strategy, aimed at accelerated growth in the North American marketplace. Earlier this year, Opus Software Solutions entered into an agreement with MasterCard to sell its subsidiary ElectraCard Services Private Limited (ECS) for an undisclosed amount.

Anand Ramakrishnan joins Opus from Capgemini, North America where he served for the better part of the last two decades, the latest as the SVP of Banking Business Unit, responsible for business development. Anand was part of the senior management team at Kanbay, (acquired by Capgemini in 2007). He developed Kanbay’s cards and payments practice from its infancy to being the largest cards practice in the IT services industry. His experience in developing Kanbay from an entrepreneurial firm in 1995 to a publicly traded firm in 2005 and subsequent sale to Capgemini will enable Opus with its growth aspirations.

Namma Bengaluru blooming with the Vibrancy of Gujarat

Government of Gujarat organized a roadshow in Namma Bengaluru to showcase the forthcoming Vibrant Gujarat 2015 Summit being organized on11-13 January, 2015 in Mahatma Mandir, the state-of-the-art convention center in the state capital Gandhinagar. The seventh edition of Vibrant of Vibrant Gujarat Summit will be led by Chief Minister Smt Anandiben Patel.

Shri Saurabhbhai Patel, Minister of Finance, Energy & Petrochemicals spearheaded the roadshow at Hotel Sheraton, which was attended by over 300 top industrialists and corporate leaders from the city. The Vibrant Gujarat Summitwill be inaugurated byPrime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, who conceptualized and created this biennial event, and transformed it into the business gateway of India. This leading business event is partnered by seven countries - Japan, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Singapore, South Africa and the Netherlands.Vibrant Gujarat is the only business event organized by a state government in the country that is partnered by theleading developed nations of the world.

A presentationcovering key sectors of the Gujarat economywas made at the roadshow. The Gujarat minister separately met key industry and business stalwarts of the city in one-to-one meetings. Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) Shri D.J Pandian and senior officers from the departments of energy, environment, education, IT and urban planning interacted with the elite gathering at the interaction meet.

Akamai warns of UPnP devices used in DDoS Attacks

Akamai Technologies released a new cybersecurity threat advisory. The advisory alerts the security community, device vendors, Internet service providers and enterprises to the risk of massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks involving Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices. The advisory is available for download from Prolexic (now part of Akamai) atwww.prolexic.com/ssdp.

PLXsert has observed the use of a new reflection and amplification DDoS attack that deliberately misuses communications protocols that come enabled on millions of home and office devices, including routers, media servers, web cams, smart TVs and printers. The protocols allow devices to discover each other on a network, establish communication and coordinate activities. DDoS attackers have been abusing these protocols on Internet-exposed devices to launch attacks that generate floods of traffic and cause website and network outages at enterprise targets.

Amazon Cloud Drive is now available on the Amazon Instant Video app

Amazon.com announced the availability of Amazon Cloud Drive on the Amazon Instant Video app, giving customers greater access to their personal videos and photos from connected devices. The feature is now available on PlayStation 3 and 4 along with select LG and Samsung smart TVs across the U.S., U.K. and Germany.

The Amazon Instant Video app is the latest place where customers can view and enjoy personal photos and videos stored on Amazon Cloud Drive, adding to the already extensive library of movies and TV shows for purchase, as well as thousands of movies and TV shows for Prime members with Prime Instant Video. Amazon Cloud Drive is already accesible on the web, iOS and Android devices, Fire TV, Fire phone and Fire tablets.

Gartner: India IT spending to reach $73.3 billion in 2015

IT spending in India is projected to total $73.3 billion in 2015, a 9.4 percent increase from the $67.1 billion forecast for 2014, according to Gartner.

“India is forecast to be the third largest IT market within the Asia/Pacific region by the end of 2016 and will further progress to become the second largest market for IT by the end of 2018,” said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner and global head of Research. “Much of the growth from being the number four market in Asia/Pacific to number three is likely to happen in 2015.”

Sondergaard discussed the latest outlook for the IT industry here today as he addressed an audience of more than 900 CIOs and IT leaders at the sold out Gartner Symposium/ITxpo.

Oncam Grandeye comes to India, opens office in Delhi

Oncam Grandeye, the security division of Oncam Technologies, formally launched its regional office in India. On the day of the launch, the company addressed a fair gathering of industry people and partners.

St.John Gould, the British High Commission Director for UKTI and Prosperity in India, said “Oncam is a great example of a bright, innovative and advanced company bringing British technology to the global market. Their 360-degree camera solutions are used widely in the UK and other countries and we look forward to seeing their success in India. Prime Minister Modi has encouraged international business to engage with India. UK businesses like Oncam are doing this in significant numbers.”

Security vendors deliver a blow against cyberespionage group Hidden Lynx

The midweek spotlight shines on cybersecurity as a cross-industry security collaboration named Operation SMN takes action against Hidden Lynx malware. Meanwhile, the Sandworm Windows zero-day vulnerability has been actively exploited in targeted attacks.

A coordinated operation involving Symantec and a number of other security companies has delivered a blow against Backdoor.Hikit and a number of other malware tools used by the Chinese-based cyberespionage group Hidden Lynx. The organisations involved in this operation include Cisco, FireEye, F-Secure, iSIGHT Partners, Microsoft, Symantec, ThreatConnect, Tenable, ThreatTrack Security, Novetta, and Volexity.

Cisco to expand its IoE use cases

Cisco outlined an expansion of its fog computing strategy with the second phase of its IOx platform for industrial scale IoT deployments. Cisco outlined increasing industry ecosystem partner momentum and new hardened IoT platform support, and introduced its IOx Application Management Module. As a key part of the Cisco® fog computing strategy, IOx enables third party operating systems such as Linux and industry software applications to run directly on Cisco hardened IoT network platforms, which is critical for IoT solutions where applications, storage and compute needs to reside closer to “Things” such as sensors and devices.

RiT boasts advanced network connectivity to datacenters

RiT Technologies has announced that it has integrated its CenterMind solution with PatchView+ bringing advanced intelligent network connectivity to the enterprise datacenter. PatchView+ is RiT’s most advanced intelligent connectivity solution available to date. 

The integration of CenterMind with PatchView+ provides datacenter managers with the industry’s first IIM solution to support mixed inter-connect, cross-connect and combined topologies, as well as combined copper and fiber cabling.  In addition, the PatchView+ breakthrough architecture requires no rack space to support an unlimited number of ports, meaning a lower upfront investment in panels and rack space, and less power consumption than previous IIM systems.

Acer comes out with BYOC solution

Acer India unveiled a new BYOC (Build Your Own Cloud) solution which enables customers to seamlessly integrate their PC and mobile devices for accessing data — anytime, anywhere. With this launch, Acer reiterates its transformation into a “hardware + software + services” company.

Offering unlimited storage, BYOC is a world where anyone can easily create, personalize and enjoy their connected universe on any device. By using Acer BYOC, consumers can effortlessly build a friendly and personal cross-platform, multi-device cloud without a significant investment in time and resources.

Unveiling the cloud solution, S. Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India, said, “Cloud technology is a disruptive concept and the industry, realizing its potential, is working towards unlocking its full range of capabilities. Acer is spearheading value-driven change by handing over the power of the cloud to the people.”

RailYatri.in claims to be the largest taxi aggregator service in India

As the taxi segment continues to hot up in the country, RailYatri.in claimed to be on the largest aggregator of branded professional taxi service providers in the country, with partners covering over 30 cities in the country.

“The taxi market in India is highly fragmented. So, while on one hand travellers struggle to find a reliable provider, professional taxi companies find it expensive to reach out to travellers”, says Manish Rathi, CEO, RailYatri.in. “We saw the need for an aggregator who could bring quality taxi partners together on a single platform. Our aim is to cover the top 200 cities across the country. We are growing rapidly and aim to be in every state by the end of this fiscal year”

Invixium Expands Distribution Agreement with Ingram Micro

Invixium Access, a Canadian based manufacturer of next-generation biometric products and solutions, has expanded its distribution with Ingram Micro whereby Ingram Micro India Ltd. will now distribute Invixium’s IXM product line of modern biometric access control solutions to channel partners throughout India.

The partnership is expected to fulfill the ever growing demand in India for exquisitely designed products with robust quality for various biometric access control installations, including: government, corporate enterprise, IT, healthcare, construction and manufacturing industries.

The IXM product line incorporates the industry-leading biometric fingerprint sensing technologies, allowing for multi-factor authentication with PINs and access cards all within a slim and stylish enclosure.  The products also support storage for up to 100,000 users and 500,000 log records with multiple connectivity options such as TCP/IP, PoE, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth and include a playful and intuitive web-based software which allows for quick configuration and monitoring of the network. Invixium products are proudly made in Canada.

Samsung Honours Incheon Asian Games Medal Winners

Samsung Electronics felicitated winners of the recently concluded Incheon Asian Games. M.C. Mary Kom was declared as the Most Valued Player (MVP), and awarded a cheque of Rs. 10 lakh by Samsung. The company also felicitated the Incheon Asian Games medal winners from different sports disciplines for their performance and dedication by presenting them with Samsung Galaxy S5. A token of acknowledgement for their sterling achievement, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is the ideal tool for athletes - equipped with state-of-the-art features like S Health, IP 67, Heart Rate Monitor, UPS etc. which the athletes can use frequently during their training and game schedule. The choice of selecting the Most Valued Player among all those who brought glory to the country was certainly not an easy one. Samsung India left the task to eminent sports journalists and general public on social media.

Cordery strengthens team with data protection and privacy expert

Cordery has strengthened its Data Protection and Regulatory team with the appointment of Patrick O'Kane, an experienced Barrister. Practicing for the last 14 years in Belfast, O'Kane has been involved in some significant data protection and regulatory decisions during his time at the Bar.

"Patrick has an excellent reputation for the work he does and is a great addition to our team," Jonathan Armstrong, Partner at Cordery, said. "Data protection and privacy is a complex and dynamic space and a real challenge for many organisations. Patrick's specific experience in this area will be very valuable for our clients. Equally important is his deep knowledge of the political and legal climate in Ireland, especially due to the vital role that Ireland plays in the global data protection regulatory environment."

New Document Capture Software from Kodak Alari

Despite widespread adoption of document capture solutions[1], IT and operations managers in many mid-to-large sized enterprises with paper-based processes are still searching for ways to boost efficiency and productivity in the ways they capture and manage information. Scanning and extracting data for use in business processes and exporting information into repositories can be a bottleneck with serious implications on the cost of back-office operations and customer satisfaction.

"As organisations become increasingly dependent on e-business platforms to drive profitability, it’s clear that the remaining paper-based information must be managed more effectively,” said Harvey Spencer, President of Harvey Spencer Associates, a leading analyst firm in the capture software market. “The best way to do this is to convert paper to usable electronic information as fast as possible."  

Connected Students Would Prefer to Give up Coffee and TV: Survey

Many students would prefer to give up coffee, TV and eating out before their precious smartphones, according to a report called ‘Building the #GenMobile Campus’, from Aruba Networks. Nearly a fifth of these students (19%) spend more than five hours online daily, preferring Wi-Fi connections (73%) over any other such as 3G or 4G.  

The study, which questioned nearly 1500 students across the globe including UAE and Saudi Arabia, the two biggest IT markets in the Middle East, showed that nearly two thirds (65%) of today’s students own three or more connected devices; spend over five hours a day on their mobiles, often use more than five apps at any one time; and are regularly rejecting traditional lecture-hall based learning for digital working across campus - whenever it works for them. About half even said they preferred to work ‘outside of normal school hours’, stating they worked more efficiently.

VSS Monitoring signs distribution partnership with SCOPE ME

Scope Middle East announced that it has been signed on as a distributor for VSS Monitoring in the Middle East. As per the agreement, SCOPE, through its extensive network of specialty resellers and system integrators across the region, will be responsible for promoting and distributing VSS Monitoring’s comprehensive and feature-rich family of network packet brokers that allows IT professionals to see into the farthest reaches of even the largest networks.

“Our partnership brings together SCOPE’s expertise of operations in the Middle East and portfolio of security tools with VSS Monitoring’s leading network packet broker (NPB) solutions, providing large enterprises and service providers with the visibility and scalability to optimize their network performance and security tools," says Firas Ghanem, Regional Sales Director, Middle East at VSS Monitoring. "Our investment in SCOPE reflects our commitment to our partners' success, through programs, training and support to accelerate their business growth."

AccessData Empowers Middle East Organizations with ResolutionOne

AccessData announced that it will be exhibiting ResolutionOne Platform at HP’s booth CLD-7, located in hall 6 of Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), at Gitex Technology Week, 12-16 October, 2014. AccessData in partnership with HP Enterprise Security Services will be demonstrating how their best of breed cyber security solutions and services minimize the damaging impact, risks and costs to enterprises.

With the increase in major breaches across financial services, retail, energy and other industries, companies are investing millions of dollars to secure and keep would-be attackers out of their networks. Security teams are faced with thousands of daily alerts using manual processes across multiple security point solutions that do not integrate. Incident-related data is disparate across solutions, endpoints and networks. The challenge remains as to how do organizations make sense of all this data and understand the context so they can intelligently respond and remediate quickly.

‘Genius of the year’, Alia Bhatt tops as McAfee’s Most Sensational Celebrity

In its eighth edition this year, McAfee’s Most Sensational Celebrity survey has found Bollywood’sAlia Bhatt topping the charts in Indian cyberspace. As part of the program, McAfee researched popular culture’s most famous people to reveal the riskiest celebrity across the web and unveil the 2014 rendition of its ‘Most Sensational Celebrity’ research.  Alia trumps Priyanka Chopra, who topped the list in 2013.

As cybercriminals exploit consumers’ need to be updated on celebrity news, McAfee’s survey highlights the pitfalls of the trend. These criminals capitalize on the public’s fascination to lure them to sites loaded with malware, which in turn allows them to steal passwords and personal information. This year, searching for a ‘celebrity name’ coupled with search terms like ‘wallpaper’, ‘videos’, ‘free download’, ‘hot pictures’, ‘selfie’ and ‘internet memes’ have resulted in instances of malware-laden sites.

YuppTV App now available on Amazon Fire TV

Reaching out to global viewers with its viewing experience and taking its ever-increasing array of channels to a greater segment of global audiences, YuppTV has launched its application on Amazon Fire TV.

Using the application, viewers using the Amazon Fire TV will now be able to take advantage of top South Asian Content that has enabled YuppTV to grow into the world’s leading over-the-top (OTT) content player. Fire TV is tiny yet powerful set-top box from the e-commerce giant Amazon.

ZTE powers rail development with the world’s first 4G solutions

ZTE Corporation is demonstrating its world-leading 4G rail telecommunication solutions at GITEX and the Middle East Rail Technology Exhibition. Industry experts have predicted that by integrating the 4G network with rail transportation, ZTE can boost global rail transportation development.

Prior to the events, which take place in the Middle East, ZTE's 4G rail telecommunication solution was successfully implemented into the Wenzhou City Railway Line S1 project in China. This solution provides three TD-LTE-based key services, including wireless multimedia broadband trunking, Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) and Passenger Information System (PIS), changing from the previous networking mode, where Tetra and WLAN provided separate bearing for different services. It is the world's first rail telecommunication project that fully uses 4G wireless broadband trunking, paving the way for a new era of wireless technology in rail transportation.

NIELIT takes forward the National Digital Literacy Mission and Digital India Campaign

Taking forward the National Digital Literacy Mission and Digital India Campaign of the Government of India, the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), a body with the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India has entered into an MOU with Intel India to jointly conduct courses and online examinations on digital literacy as well as vet NIELIT’s courses on Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM). Intel will develop the software for assessment of candidates under the National Digital Literacy Mission to make the courses more industry oriented.to endeavor to make one member of each house hold digitally literate in India. The MOU was signed by Dr. Ashwini Kumar Sharma, Managing Director, NIELIT with Ms. Debjani Ghosh, Managing Director, Intel South Asia in the presence of Chief Guest Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Minister for Communications & Information Technology and Law & Justice at NIELIT’s national level workshop 2014 for its accredited partners (900 Nos.) and facilitation centres (5000 Nos.).  31 NIELIT centres are located across the country from Leh in the North to Chennai in the South.

The annual workshop on Supporting Digital India by Skilling, Scaling and Speeding Operations through Public Private Partnerships explored possible avenues to facilitate the Skill Development and Capacity Building initiatives of the Government of India. NIELIT also entered into an MOU with the Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (IGDTUW) on the occasion. Also present were Shri R.S. Sharma, Secretary, DeitY, Shri Tapan Ray, Additional Secretary, DeitY and Dr. Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, DeitY. 

Multi-Screen Media’s premier digital Sports Entertainment destination

Multi Screen Media (MSM) announced that “LIV Sports”, its premier Digital Sports Entertainment destination - www.LIVSports.in holds the Mobile and Internet Broadcast rights of the UEFA Euro 2016 Qualifiers for India. The Qualifying schedule is currently underway, starting September 2014 and it will run through November 2015. LIV Sports will offer both LIVE and Video-on-demand match content, with rich and informative statistics and analysis. The 2016 UEFA European Championship is scheduled to be held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016.

The power packed digital destination will enable viewers to watch the LIVE telecast of the Qualifying tournament at a nominal rate of USD 3 per match and will also offer Video-on-demand highlights. The Video-on-demand content on LIV Sports will include Match Highlights, Goals, Penalties, Red Cards, Free Kicks and Misses.

PayUMoney acquires mobile payment product Eashmart

PayUMoney, an online payment solution by PayU India, claims to make another strategic move towards cashless economy by acquiring Eashmart, a mobile based payment application. With this acquisition, PayUMoney is furthering towards its goal to replace cash payments with online payments.

By enabling consumers to use credit/debit cards/net-banking to make payments for anything, the mobile app let users buy things without swiping the card in a swipe machine. One of the key features of this app is that it doesn’t require merchants to install or buy any hardware. It further eases the payment process by sensing the OTP (one-time password) from user’s mobile phone without having user to type password from the text messages.

Eashmart was founded by Amit Kumar and he along with his team has joined PayUMoney team where they will continue to help with the development of new app features.

Virtual Trading game brings new opportunities to India

Nous Global Markets announced the India entry of its ‘Spark Profit’ application. Spark Profit is a free to join, free to play and free to earn virtual trading game. Behind its friendly interface is a highly realistic trading simulator that pays actual cash for correctly predicting financial markets (currencies, commodities, stock indices and Bitcoin). As a bonus players will also learn the valuable skills needed to trade as fulltime occupation.

The goal of Spark Profit is to make predictions in financial markets to earn points. Earn enough points, and you start to earn money - the more points you accumulate, the more money you earn! There is no outlay of cash nor investment required. Even more compelling, 95% of the points you earn are carried over each week, to help you earn as much as possible.

NetRack Appoints National Product Manager

NetRack, a solutions provider for data centers and end-to-end IT server racks, has appointed PavanKumar as National Product Manager for Technology Division. Pavan Kumar will ensure the product distribution across India along with smooth functioning of business operations at NetRack by coordinating with the Regional Channel Manager and OEM at the time of POC's, pricing affairs, stock availability deliveries, grievances etc. Mr Pavan Kumar will be responsible for upgrading and providing the solutions for the existing products along with the new products.

Mr Pavan Kumar is skilled with identifying appropriate market for the IT hardware and software products like IP Base PDU, KVM switches, asset management, data backup software, storage etc. He has gained valuable experience in data center management products. He has taken up product training, enabling and empowering partners for client pitches and product mapping.

Second annual pega developers conference kicks off

Pegasystems kicked off its second annual Pega Developers Conference (PDC) at the Hyderabad International Convention Center (HICC). The two-day conference, themed “Powering the Digital Enterprise,” was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Telangana, Mr. K Chandrashekar Rao, and the IT Minister of Telangana, Mr. KT Rama Rao, along with Mr. Suman Reddy, Managing Director, Pegasystems India.

During the first day, interactive training sessions included Next Generation Business Applications, and Building Mobile Enterprise Applications Faster, providing an immersion into Pega Technology. The two-day conference, which also provides a talent enablement platform for Pega-certified developers, is designed to respond to the growing demand for Pega applications by improving the skills of current Pega-certified developers and introducing Pega to a fast-expanding community of interested developers. The conference also features insights from business visionaries to leverage agile technologies such as social, mobile, and cloud to drive digital transformation in their global enterprises.

Google Android One may not succeed in India: IDC

It was expected that Google might face a lot of challenges to create a marketplace for its latest launch Google Android One operating system. A host of analysts had earlier disregarded the operating system for being low quality. Now IDC has said that Google may face several challenges to sell the phones in the Indian market. The user response does not seem encouraging for the operating system.

The biggest challenge it faces from Android alone. Since the handset makers are already out in the market with handsets that cost less than or around Rs 2000. While the idea is great from Google, it is said that the company has launched it too late in the market. Had it done earlier last year, it would have faced less problems and created market. However, the loss will not be great since Android is also Google's own product.

Government IT Spending in India Forecast to Reach $7.2 Billion in 2015

Government IT spending in India will total $7.2 billion  in 2015, a 5 percent increase over 2014, according to Gartner. Government IT spending is on pace to total $ 6.6 billion in 2014.

This forecast includes spending by the government sector (government is composed of state and regional government and central government agencies) on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.

“IT services, which includes consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, will be the largest overall IT government spending category through 2018, “ said Anurag Gupta, research director at Gartner. “IT services are expected to grow 10.9 percent in 2014 to reach $1.8 billion in 2015, up from $1.6 billion in 2014 - with the business process outsourcing segment growing 22 percent during 2014.”

Shellshock Bug: Role of Privileged Identity Management

The Shellshock bug is the newest cyber threat to hit the internet and said to be a more serious vulnerability than Heartbleed. Shellshock has been lurking in the massively popular software package Bash, a command line interpreter, or shell, that provides a powerful, flexible way to run commands on a computer. A highly stealthy vulnerability, Shellshock has gone undetected in Bash for more than two decades. 

Bash is a standard, free, tool for all UNIX-based operating systems and Apple’s OS X. One of the largest industries to rely on UNIX-based systems is the energy sector, who’s SCADA and industrial control systems are largely built on this technology.  Additionally, it is widely used on simple Internet connected devices, meaning that not only can servers be compromised but also home routers, IP cameras, basically concerning, the Internet of Things. 

Verizon and GE join hands for Industrial Internet

General Electric and Verizon announced plans to expand the reach and strength of the Industrial Internet. The companies have teamed up to allow GE’s software-enabled machines and devices to connect to Verizon’s machine-to-machine connectivity and cloud platforms to create a secure wireless communications system for the Industrial Internet. The announcement was made at GE’s Minds + Machines conference in New York.

The GE/Verizon alliance is poised to deliver a range of value-added services for GE’s Predix™ platform, including remote monitoring, diagnostics and the ability to resolve maintenance issues virtually anywhere in the world. GE and Verizon will also enter into discussions to collaborate on a single global SIM (subscriber identity module) for global connectivity.

Dy. National Security Adviser favours PPP model in cyber security

Deputy National Security Adviser Arvind Gupta stressed upon the public-private partnership (PPP) model including government and private oranisations to generate awareness among people in India about cyber attacks at an ASSOCHAM conference held in New Delhi today.

While inaugurating the ASSOCHAM 6th annual summit on “Cyber & Network Security” here, said Dr Arvind Gupta said, “Internet has many stakeholders and the government is involved in terms of making laws and the private sectors are involved in creating technologies like hardware, software and so on and this can’t be seen in an isolated manner…. that’s why PPP model is important”

Replying to a question from a reporter on threats from china, Mr. Gupta said, “we have hardened our systems and we also have to have a proper insurance framework”. He said, “It’s not specific to one country or other but we have to be prepared to meet threats from everywhere…”

NVIDIA and IBM boast supercomputing to Big Data

NVIDIA and IBM are working to tackle some of the most vexing challenges of data center computing.

Last Friday, IBM announced that it’s developing  a GPU-accelerated version of its DB2 database software with BLU Acceleration - the database used around the world by enterprise customers handling high-volume workloads.

And, IBM plans to accelerate its other big data software packages in the future.

Clarion launches Android-Based connected car stereo

Clarion, a Japanese manufacturer of car audio, navigation and communication systems, under its Asia arm Clarion Malaysia launched the CLARION AX1 - Android-Based Connected Car Stereo. Claimed to be a first of its kind in India, Carion AX1 is a complete infotainment device and promises a new and exciting experience for all gadget and technology enthusiasts.

OpenText to Showcase a Vision for a Digital-first Future

OpenText announced that it would be present at the Gartner Symposium, 2014, taking place on 14-17 October at the Grand Hyatt, Goa. With cloud computing, mobile devices, big data, and the Internet of Things redefining how we work and conduct business, OpenText will be providing Symposium attendees with a view on how information sits at the heart of the digital transformation.

By 2020, all of the major operating functions of an organization will be digital and to stay competitive in such an environment, the enterprise of today will have to transform itself into the digital enterprise of tomorrow.  And in the digital age, information is the most critical business asset, playing a vital role in enabling innovation, growth, and opportunity by empowering business decision-makers with timely access to pertinent data and information.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls on PM

The founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, called on the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today. 

They discussed a wide range of issues revolving around the innovative use of Facebook as a platform to engage with a large audience in the service of humanity. 

The Prime Minister spoke to Zuckerberg about the Swachh Bharat Mission. It may be recalled that that the Prime Minister shared his ‘Why Clean India’ (Before) and ‘My Clean India’ photo along with a video on Facebook on October 3rd, 2014. Mr. Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook wants to work with the Government of India in the fields of healthcare and education, providing a range of services to the people. Mr. Zuckerberg added that Facebook will help in the creation of the Clean India Mobile App and that it would be launched soon. This would give a strong impetus to the Swachh Bharat Mission. 

Array Networks claims to be unaffected by Bash Vulnerability

Array Networks announces that Array Networks products - including APV, vAPV, AG, vxAG and EOS products (TMX, SPX) - are NOT exposed to the bash vulnerability. Unlike hardware and software vendors that have exposed bash for remote access such as SSH, WebUI, XML/RPC and application portals, Array products do not expose bash at a user level and are therefore not affected by the bash vulnerability. As a result, no actions or mitigation are required on the part of Array networks customers or users.

As described on the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Website, GNU Bash through 4.3 processes trailing strings after function definitions in the values of environment variables, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted environment, as demonstrated by vectors involving the ForceCommand feature in OpenSSH sshd, the mod_cgi and mod_cgid modules in the Apache HTTP Server, scripts executed by unspecified DHCP clients, and other situations in which setting the environment occurs across a privilege boundary from Bash execution, aka "ShellShock".

Deloitte named a global leader in SAP Implementation Service Providers by Gartner

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) is pleased to announce that Deloitte has been named a global leader in SAP Implementation Services by Gartner for the second consecutive year in their recently released report entitled Magic Quadrant for SAP Implementation Service Providers, Worldwide, 2014. According to Gartner, SAP implementations services “include configuration, customization and enhancement of existing SAP functionalities; application, report and interface development; and data loading, rollout, integration, testing and training services.”

“Deloitte is pleased to be recognized again by Gartner as a globalSAP Implementation Service Provider leader.  Gartner research provides objective market views that help clients make decisions regarding thought leaders and solution implementers who may best help solve strategic problems,” said Jan Waals, Deloitte Global SAP Leader. “We believe Gartner’s recognition of our proven track record in leading technologies is particularly relevant as member firm clients demand tangible solutions that generate real business value through innovative delivery.”

Vodafone wins $530 mn tax case in Mumbai HC

The Mumbai High Court ruled yesterday in favor of Vodafone in the $530 million tax case. The court said that telecom service provider Vodafone need not pay the tax claim of $530 million slapped on it for buying shares in its Indian arm.

The case pertains to Vodafone’s outsourcing arm in Pune issuing shares to its parent firm. The IT  (Income Tax) Department had demanded the amount from Vodafone’s outsourcing unit, with taxes plus interest, which the company had challenged. The authorities said the funds were infused by the parent company into its Indian arm at a discounted share premium.

Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2015

Gartner highlighted the top 10 technology trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2015. Gartner defines a strategic technology trend as one with the potential for significant impact on the organization in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to the business, end users or IT, the need for a major investment, or the risk of being late to adopt. These technologies impact the organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives.

"We have identified the top 10 technology trends that organizations cannot afford to ignore in their strategic planning processes," said David Cearley. "This does not necessarily mean adoption and investment in all of the trends at the same rate, but companies should look to make deliberate decisions about them during the next two years."

Government of Telangana launches “Public Wi-Fi”

The Government of Telangana and Bharti Airtel launched the State’s first “Public Wi-fi”. In the run-up to make Hyderabad a "Global Smart City", this has been launched as a pilot in 17 tested hotspot locations in the hub of Hi-tech city enabling customers across operators to avail  public Wi-Fi and enjoy internet services of upto 750 Mb per day per user. This initiative is a part of the Government’s broader agenda of allowing citizens to experience a host of web opportunities making Hyderabad a leading digital city.     

Users of smartphones, tablets, and other WiFi-enabled devices will now be able to connect to data across these 17 locations around the Hi-tech city. To begin with, these public Wi-Fi hotspots have been set up between Cyber towers to Madhapur Police Station, Cyber Towers to Kothaguda Junction and Cyber Towers to Raheja Mindspace Circle. On an average around 40,000 commuters, commercial establishments, visitors can benefit from this service.  

NetApp launches software-defined storage for hybrid cloud

Billions of mobile devices, users, and applications create a massive amount of data every day. Keeping this in mind, NetApp released NetApp StorageGRID Webscale object-storage software that boasts to helps organizations leverage the hybrid cloud to manage massive data-sets with reduced cost and secure data management. The new release of StorageGRID Webscale adds seamless integration of cloud applications with Amazon S3 support. It also enables IT organizations to store up to 100 billion objects in a single elastic container that can be distributed in data centers worldwide.

Object storage addresses the challenges associated with the storing of unstructured data within cloud storage, large archives, media repositories, and web data-stores. StorageGRID Webscale is a foundational platform in NetApp’s approach to object storage. The software addresses a range of use cases, managing data placement according to cost, compliance, availability, and performance requirements. NetApp will continue to introduce new solutions to help organizations take full advantage of object storage with releases planned in 2015 and looking forward.

Sandeep Mathur Oracle India MD leaves Oracle

Sandeep Mathur who headed Oracle India's operations as managing director for last few years is learnt to have left Oracle India. There are no confirmed reports as to where he has joined. But speculations say that he has joined Infosys. Sandeep is credited for his leadership as he drove Oracle forward in India. Under his leadership the company grew at a faster rate and crossed revenues more than Rs 10k crore in India.

Microsoft Ventures opens applications for sixth Accelerator batch in India

Microsoft announced the opening of applications for the sixth batch for the Accelerator Program of Microsoft Ventures in India. Starting October 10, 2014 till November 30, 2014, Microsoft will receive online applications from technology startups. The names of shortlisted companies will be announced in a few weeks after applications close and they will be invited for a face-to-face session with a jury panel. The final list of startups will constitute the summer batch of calendar year 2015 and will begin the four-month acceleration program at Microsoft’s office in downtown Bangalore in end January, 2015. Their graduation day will coincide with Think Next event in June 2015, where the startups will get an opportunity to showcase their ideas to key industry influential, eminent investors, mentors from India and abroad as well as the leadership team of Microsoft Ventures.

Infosys Q2 net profit rise to Rs 3,096 crore with 7% growth

Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest IT services exporter, on Friday defeated market expectations with a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 3,096 crore for the second quarter of the current financial year, versus an ET NOW Poll of Rs 2,864.4 crore. 

This is a rise of 7.2% QoQ, from Rs 2,886 crore in the previous quarter. The company retained the FY15 revenue guidance at 7%-9%., which puts the company on the radar once again  It seems that Vishal Sikka effect seems to work  However, it is too early to say 

The IT major reported a sales figure of Rs 13,342 crore. The company's board approved a bonus issue of 1:1. Infosys also declared an interim dividend of Rs 30/share. 

AMD appoints Lisa Su as Chief Executive Officer

AMD has appointed Lisa Su as president and chief executive officer and member of the board of directors, effective immediately. Su, 44, succeeds Rory Read, 52, who has stepped down as president and chief executive officer, and member of the board of directors, as part of a transition plan. Read will support the transition in an advisory role, remaining with the company through the end of 2014.

“Leadership succession planning has been a joint effort between Rory and the board and we felt that Lisa’s expertise and proven leadership in the global semiconductor industry make this an ideal time for her to lead the company,” said Bruce Claflin, chairman of AMD’s board of directors. “The board looks forward to continuing to work with Lisa and the rest of the senior management team to build on the company’s momentum. I would also like to thank Rory for his many accomplishments and contributions positioning AMD for long-term success by helping to create a strong foundation and clear path to re-establish the company’s growth and profitability.”

PC Shipments in the Third Quarter of 2014 Declined 0.5 Percent: Gartner

Worldwide PC shipments reached 79.4 million units in the third quarter of 2014, a 0.5 percent decline from the third quarter of last year, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.

“Growth in the mature markets was offset by a decline in shipments in emerging markets, similar to what was seen in the second quarter of 2014,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Positive results in Western Europe and North America can be a sign of gradual recovery for the PC industry.

“Consumers’ attention is slowly going back to PC purchases as tablet adoption peaked with mainstream consumers. The transition from PCs to tablets has faded as tablet penetration has reached the 40-50 percent range.” In contrast, weakness in the emerging market reflects the saturation in selected consumer segments where they can afford PCs. In the meantime, consumers who don’t have PCs will likely buy low priced tablet. This is a one of the major reasons for the slow growth in PC shipments in the emerging market.”

New Kindle available on Amazon.in and 320 retail outlets across India

Starting today, customers can buy the new Kindle on www.amazon.in/kindle or at 320 retail outlets across India including Croma, Reliance Digital, E-Zone, and Vijay Sales stores located in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Pune. The all-new Kindle is available for INR 5999 Kindle and comes with a 20% faster processor, twice the storage and a touchscreen interface.

Firefox OS expanding into India with new devices

In just a few weeks since the first Firefox OS devices hit the Indian market, Mozilla has announced further partnerships with popular mobile device brands and app partners in India to launch new smartphones and content services. New Firefox OS devices in the ultra-low-cost category will be launched by Zen Mobile for the Indian market soon. Furthermore, key apps providers including eBay India, ESPN, Vuclip and Zomato, and will also partner with Mozilla to enrich Firefox Marketplace and expand Firefox OS ecosystem in India.

"The flexibility and open foundations of Firefox OS give operators more choice and empower OEMs to deliver smartphones at more affordable prices,” said Neil Mawston, Executive Director of Strategy . “As Firefox OS continues its expansion into key growth markets such as Asia, Central and Latin America, it has emerged out of the 'other' category as one of the top platforms for the global smartphone industry.”

The use of augmentative and alternative communication for differently-abled learners

By: Dr. Ramalatha Marimuthu

(IEEE Senior Member)

IEEE believes that Assistive Technology is an emerging field bringing the engineers, medical practitioners and end users in close contact to solve the problems faced by human kind in their day to day life due to age, immobility, disability, environment and any number of other reasons. This field is attracting the attention of Governments, Corporates, Academia, Students, medical professionals, end users and NGOs. The scope of bringing the end users with the latest technology available as well as designing new systems for the customised use of the end users is large.

Developmental Dyslexia is the most common neuro-biological disorder affecting children with prevalence rates ranging from 5% to 10%. This is a chronic condition characterized by difficulties with accurate and / or fluent word recognition, by poor spelling and decoding abilities. This results in difficulty in learning to utilize correspondence regularities between graphemes and phonemes and in poor phonological awareness making the child a slow learner. Many children having this difficulty find it impossible to cope up with the current education system an d the teachers also find it extremely difficult to make the children understand their teaching.Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is using the communication methods used to supplement or replace speech or writing for those with impairments in the production or comprehension of spoken or written language. Teaching through signs, symbols and other visual media is a current research topic finding much interest in developed countries.

Indian public cloud services market to reach $638 mn in 2014

Public cloud services revenue in India will reach $638 million by the end of 2014, an increase of almost 34 percent, or $161 million over 2013 revenue, according to Gartner. Public cloud services revenue is driven by high rates of growth in key market segments, namely cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and software as a service (SaaS), two of the largest segments in the public cloud services market. Spending on SaaS will total $249 million in 2014, an increase of 37 percent over last year. Spending on IaaS will grow 33 percent to $77 million during the same period.

Gartner predicts continuing high rates of spending on cloud services in India through 2018 when the market is expected to reach almost $2 billion.

Facebook founder Zuckerberg arrives in Delhi, to meet Modi

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has for the first time arrived in India. As reported earlier, this is another global CEO visit to India in recent time after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was in Delhi last week. It is learnt that the Facebook founder is expected to meet Narendra Modi. While the global CEOs are hopeful of India growth, there can be significant announcements for the local market. 

Like Microsoft announced last week that it would set up datacenters locally, Facebook might come up with a roadmap for this market. Since it is too early to say, we need to wait and watch the outcomes of the meetings between Zuckerberg and Modi.

Truecaller gets $60 Million in New Funding

Truecaller, which helps people take the right call,  nnounced that an investor group led by Atomico, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Sequoia Capital, Jerry Murdock (co-founder of Insight Venture Partners) and Stefan Lennhammer has invested $60 million in the company. This Series C round of financing will be used to fuel product development, hire new talent and expand the company’s global footprint.  

The company also announced that John Doerr, partner at KPCB, Mattias Ljungman, managing partner at Atomico, and investor Jerry Murdock will be joining Truecaller’s board to further help shape the strategic direction of the companAy. Atomico founder and Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström will also join the board as a special adviser.

Infosys Bids farewell to S Gopalakrishnan, celebrates contributions of all Founders

Infosys bade adieu to S (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, the last among the group of extraordinary founders to leave the company. At the farewell function held at the company’s headquarters in Bangalore, Infosys celebrated the exemplary contributions and achievements of the founding team. N. R. Narayana Murthy, K. Dinesh, Nandan M. Nilekani, S. D. Shibulal, Kris Gopalakrishnan and N. S. Raghavan were present at the ceremony.

With Kris’ retirement, the last of the founding team at Infosys has moved on, carving a new path for Infosys under the leadership of Dr. Vishal Sikka, who took over as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Infosys on August 1, 2014. Speaking on the occasion, the founders shared experiences from their journey at Infosys.

Salesforce renames sales software, customer service

Salesforce.com has renamed its customer-support and sales software and announced a few additional features in advance of its annual Dreamforce event, which starts next week in San Francisco. The announcements reflect the new reality Salesforce.com and other business software vendors face as companies desire a mobile-first design for applications, with effective ways to serve their customers across multiple channels. 

The support application is now dubbed Service Cloud1 -- naming that aligns with the company's Salesforce1 development platform.