<div>HTC on Wednesday (28 January) launched the new HTC Desire 526G+ dual SIM, bringing seamless multi-tasking, smooth browsing and effortless video creation to the entry-level market. The HTC Desire 526G+ dual SIM brings an even more powerful experience with Octa-Core processor, the latest addition to the HTC Desire family packs in more than ever before. Available in 8GB and 16GB variants, it is a stunning smartphone with high end camera and vibrant display for an amazing experience in the entry-level market.</div><div> </div><div>“Our new HTC Desire model is a power packed combination of innovative designing and comfortable handling and smooth processing. The HTC Desire 526G+ dual SIM is the best buy for tech lovers who look for innovation and technology that fits perfectly in their pocket. HTC wants to empower the masses and put a good phone in everyone’s hands, without compromising on features and specifications,” said Faisal Siddiqui, Vice President and Country Head, HTC India.</div><div> </div><div>Boasting a 1.7 GHz Octa-Core processor, the HTC Desire 526G+ dual SIM can comfortably meet any challenge, no matter how you want to use your phone. Whether you want to take high quality photos and selfies to fast web browsing, silky-smooth graphics on a stunning display when watching videos or playing games, or simply the ability to switch between multiple apps, exceptional performance comes as a standard with this device.</div><div> </div><div><strong>mRupee Launches PaySmart Prepaid Card</strong></div><div>MMPL (a subsidiary of Tata Teleservices Ltd.) on Wednesday announced the launch of a new Open Loop prepaid, VISA powered, card in partnership with RBL Bank (Also known as Ratnakar Bank). The new service will provide a platform for the users to move away from traditional cash based transactions into an easy, secure and private mode of payment.</div><div> </div><div>By obtaining a PaySmart card, mRUPEE customers will be able to withdraw money from VISA licensed ATMs and also pay for goods and services at all merchants that accept VISA Debit/Credit cards nationally. Today, digital/plastic money has evolved quickly beyond just cash to take the center stage in an increasingly digitally endowed world. Tata Teleservices realizes that India is witnessing a form of ‘half-life’ adoption where the time required for each new platform or application to become genuinely mainstream, is half that of its predecessor.</div><div> </div><div>“The PaySmart card is a milestone towards realizing Tata Teleservices vision of simple and secured transaction services. Keeping financial inclusion in mind, we have worked towards creating this product for all customers who can now have a choice of cashless dealings. Amongst the host of offerings around mobile money, this product addresses a clear gap of Cash Out which is currently not available with the Semi Closed Wallets, There is a clear need in the marketplace for such an offering at the right price and feature set.” said Pradeep Sampath, Chief Operating Officer, MMP Mobi Wallet Prepaid Systems Limited.</div><div> </div><div><strong>LANXESS Business Unit Gains New Strength</strong></div><div>LANXESS, the global specialty chemicals company is currently undergoing strategic realignment within the organization. One of its largest business units Advanced Industrial Intermediates (AII), which until now catered to intermediates for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, coatings among others, will now also take over the antioxidants and accelerators businesses previously managed by the Rubber Chemicals (RUC) business unit at LANXESS.</div><div> </div><div>The restructured business unit AII's core business will continue to be the production and global marketing of high-grade industrial chemicals. The expansion of its current product portfolio through the addition of the business unitRUC's antioxidants and accelerators fits in very well with the existing business model. This realignment will allow leveraging the synergies between the two erstwhile BUs, build a competitive sales structure with improved efficiencies, allow competitive access to raw materials and utilities, enable sharing of resources and optimizing costs. With its networkedglobal production organization and marketing operations, the AII business unit has been highly successful in the past, even though its products are in an environment of stiff competition from the products of other suppliers.</div><div> </div><div>“In the AII business unit we operate a chemical business that has long-term perspectives. This is based largely on sustainable customer relations and trust built up over many years in the markets in question. Similarly, we want to develop strong relations with the customers of antioxidants and accelerators previously served by BU RUC. It is very important to me that we maintain long-term customer relationships in the future as well," said Hubert Fink, Head, Business Unit, Advanced Industrial Intermediates, LANXESS AG. </div><div> </div><div><strong>Everest Group Names Virtusa Major Contender For Aloud Services</strong></div><div>Virtusa Corporation, a global business consulting and IT outsourcing company that combines innovation, technology leadership and industry solutions to transform the customer experience, today announced it has been named a Major Contender in enterprise cloud application services by Everest Group, an advisory and research firm on global services. This is the first year Virtusa has been positioned by Everest Group in this category.</div><div> </div><div>The in-depth report, issued annually, measures service providers on its proprietary Performance, Experience, Ability and Knowledge (PEAK) Matrix. According to the report, the PEAK Matrix is a composite framework that provides an objective, data-driven, and comparative assessment of independent testing service providers based on their absolute market success and delivery capability.</div><div> </div><div>“We are truly humbled to be included on this year’s PEAK Matrix for enterprise cloud application services,” said Amit Khanna, vice president and global head of Cloud Practice at Virtusa. “We’re proud to take a holistic approach to cloud migration services and understand that a successful transformation experience not just relies on applications, but ensuring synergies exist with the hardware, as well. It’s an honor to be included as a major contender and we look forward to moving up in next year’s report.”</div><div> </div><div><strong>Affordable Healthcare Diagnostics Gets A New Direction</strong></div><div>The Fourth installment of the ReDx Camp ‘Redesigning Diagnostics’ by MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture Group along with Tata Center for Technology+Design, IIT-B, Hinduja National Hospital was inaugurated at WeSchool on January 24, 2015, bringing together around 100 young participants that included engineers, health professionals and design students from across the country. This confluence of young minds will work towards creating working prototypes of innovative diagnostic devises that will bring high quality and low cost medical solutions to not just the millions of people in India, but also billions of people around the world.</div><div> </div><div>With over 100 prototypes and 380 participants, India’s biggest ‘Design Innovation Workshop’, a collaborative initiative by MIT Media Lab and WeSchool that had concluded successfully last year, Prof Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool said, “WeSchool has indeed turned into an innovation hub as we work closely with multiple partners like MIT Media Lab for the DI workshop, International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) for Interdesign 2014, Swedish Energy Agency for India Sweden Energy Accelerator and the world renown Center for Creative Leadership to nurture our Global Citizen Leaders."<br /> </div><div><strong>India's External Storage Market Witnesses Double Digit Growth</strong></div><div>According to International Data Corporation IDC's Asia/Pacific Quarterly Enterprise Storage Tracker, Q3 2014 India external storage market witnessed a double-digit quarter-on-quarter growth (in vendor Revenue) and stood at $61.97 million though year-on-year was a de-growth.</div><div> </div><div>Q3 2014 witnessed a recovery majorly due to some large multi-million dollar deals that were absent from last few quarters. The market is expected to revive in the coming quarters due to business favouring policies from government and large pending technology refreshes, though increased acceptability of cloud and need of infrastructure optimization across organizations are posing hiccups to the traditional storage market growth.</div><div> </div><div>Optimization and productivity have become the key priorities across organizations resulting in increased adoption of technologies like virtualization, de-duplication, automatic tiering, compression and thin provisioning.</div><div> </div><div>Flash storage is gaining foothold in Indian organizations, especially in verticals like Communication & Media, Manufacturing, IT/ITeS and Banking. Software defined storage is also slowly gaining traction with majority of the OEMs gearing up with solution based approach to cater to this demand.</div>
