In a blunt message, IT czar N R Narayana Murthy on Wednesday (15 July) said India has failed to generate even a single "earth-shaking" invention in the past 60 years that could become a household name globally. Besides, none of the Prime Ministers since Jawaharlal Nehru have paid any attention to the need for impactful research from the country, Murthy said while delivering the convocation address at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science here. "Our youngsters have not done much impactful research work despite being equal to their counterparts in intellect and energy in Western universities," he said. He referred to the first Prime Minister's visit to the US in 1962, where he exhorted the about-to-finish Phds to come back to the country and play a major role in creating an India where a poorest child in the remotest village had access to decent education, healthcare, nutrition and shelter. The result, he said, was advances in atomic energy, the space programme and other areas. The magic of 60s should be recreated, he said. "For that we have to recreate an environment of utmost respect for scholarship and for our Directors and faculty in the corridors of the government, among bureaucrats, politicians and in our society. "We have to become more open minded in welcoming foreign intellectuals and students. We have to create opportunities for our students and faculty to spend time at well known universities abroad," he added. Almost all inventions such as cars, electric bulb, radio, television, computers, Internet, wifi, MRI, laser, robots and many other gadgets and technology happened, "thanks to the research by Western Universities", Murthy said. He added: "On the other hand, let us pause and ask what the contributions of Indian institutions of higher learning, particularly IISc and IITs, have been over the last sixty-plus years to make our society and the world a better place? "Is there one invention from India that has become a household name in the globe? Is there one technology that has transformed the productivity of global corporations? Is there one idea that has lead to an earth shaking invention to delight global citizens?" Co-founder of the country's major IT firm Infosys said: "Folks, the reality is that there is no such contribution from India in the last 60. The only two ideas that have transformed the productivity of global corporations -- The Global Delivery Model and the 24-hours workday -- came from the company called Infosys."(PTI)
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The app connects small sellers, home entrepreneurs and artisans with potential buyers on a zero commission basis, reports Simar SinghWith the aim of bringing a million small shops online within a year, e-commerce giant, Snapdeal, announced the launch of a new open marketplace, Shopo. The mobile based interface aims to connect small sellers, home entrepreneurs and artisans with potential buyers and works on a zero commission model. “Mobile is one of the key drivers fuelling the growth of e-commerce in the country. In line with this, we have launched Shopo- a mobile based open marketplace that will allow businesses as well as individuals to harness the power of the internet instantly and at zero cost”, said Snapdeal’s Co-Founder and CEO, Kunal Bahl, at Shopo’s launch in the Capital. The company’s Chief Product Officer, Anand Chandrasekaran, told BW|Businessworld that they recognised that there was a gap in the market for a platform like Shopo because they were rejecting eight out of ten sellers who wanted to retail their products on Snapdeal because they were not big enough to be registered, have the required licenses, etc. The ambition was to create a space for such sellers, who despite together contributing to 13 per cent of India’s GDP remain fragmented and unorganised. Taglined ‘Chat Buy Sell’, the mobile app tries to create a seamless seller and customer connection by offering an incredibly simplified interface. In Bahal’s words, the idea was to create “friction free commerce”. The application offers easy mobile number based registration for sellers, which, according to the company, takes less than 30 seconds and a chat option for buyers and sellers to interact, recreating the traditional market experience. Buyers can make bids which sellers are free to accept or reject. However, the company is not offering any logistical support or payment infrastructure in the app as of now and, transactions and other details have to be worked out on a personal level between the interacting parties. According to Chandrasekaran, the two key aims while developing the product were creating “experience and trust”, with the straightforward interface creating the experience and the chat option helping build trust. Bahal said that currently less than, “0.1 per cent of the SMBs in India have an online presence” and Shopo hopes to take the rest of them online to help them grow as an online shop was the most convenient platform to reach a variety of interested buyers. Shopo already has over 30,000 listings with a new one being added “every five seconds” and more than 4,500 shop owners registered.
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Raytheon|Websense (formerly Websense), a global leader in protecting organisations from the latest cyber attacks and data theft, announced its citation as a leader for its Triton AP-Web with Web Cloud Module in global research and advisory firm Forrester Research report."We are pleased to be independently recognized as a leader in the SaaS web content security space," said Raytheon|Websense Vice President of product management, Mike Siegel. "We believe that this recognition further validates our commitment to providing our customers' the most comprehensive protection to stop advanced threats and prevent data theft across the kill chain."Forrester's independent, 26-criteria evaluation ranked Websense among the highest scores for threat detection, automated malware analysis, and endpoint support, as well as the top score among all vendors in the reporting category. Websense also received among the highest scores in the Data loss prevention — discovery and analysis category, authentication and administration categories.According to the report, leaders in this Forrester Wave provide extensive functionality in the cloud, and shine for their broad endpoint support, multiple deployment options, multiple authentication options, and regional coverage. "Each vendor's viability and investment to meet current and emerging customer demands, technical functionality satisfaction, account management satisfaction, and service-level agreements" were also factored into the strategy category criteria.(BW Online Bureau)
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Microsoft's India-born CEO Satya Nadella has acknowledged that "one big mistake" the company made in the past was to think the personal computer will reign supreme forever and failing to anticipate the technological transformation of the mobile phone. "If anything, one big mistake we made in our past was to think of the PC (personal computer) as the hub for everything for all time to come. And today, of course, the high volume device is the six-inch phone. I acknowledge that. "But to think that that's what the future is for all time to come would be to make the same mistake we made in the past without even having the share position of the past. So that would be madness," Nadella said in an interview to technology news website ZDNet. He added that the company has to be on the "hunt for what is the next bend in the curve". "That's what, quite frankly, anyone has to do to be relevant in the future. In our case, we are doing that. We're doing that with our innovation in Windows. We're doing that with features like Continuum. Even the phone, I just don't want to build another phone, a copycat phone operating system, even," he said. Nadella recalled that when he had joined the company in 1992, the focus and ambition was to take the personal computer in every home and on every desk. "Guess what: We achieved that. And a company has to outlast any given technology paradigm and any ambitious goal. And so for me this going back to what is it that drove Bill (Gates) to build even the BASIC compiler or the interpreter to what we did in terms of inventing productivity or democratising client-server computing," he said. The Microsoft chief had spelled out personal computing, reinvention of productivity and business process and building an intelligent cloud platform as the company's three "bold ambitions" going forward at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2015 underway here. Elaborating on his outlook for the Windows phone, Nadella said he does not want the phones to be any other phone operating system or device. He stressed Microsoft will also not launch a phone a day but focus on few phones that are unique. "And that's what I want our devices and device innovation to stand for." The conference was the first major company event following the announcement on July 8 that Microsoft would be cutting 7,800 jobs and write off $7.6 billion, all related to its Nokia business. Nadella said the announcement about the Nokia business was not about any change to the comany's vision and strategy, but for sure it was a "change to its operating approach". "The way we're going to go about it. I'm not going to launch a phone a day. I'm going to focus on a few phones that actually grab share that, in fact, showcase our uniqueness," he said.(PTI)
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Tennis mania is back thanks to Wimbledon and if you love the sport then you should definitely try 'Stick Tennis' which is a simple yet addictive game. Developed by Stick Games, the same developer that made 'Stick Cricket', this game includes simple swipes to perform your strokes in the game.The game comes with a training mode where you can learn how to play the game called Casual Sets Tennis Club. Other than that there are there are some other modes including World Domination, in which you take on well known Tennis stars like Steffi Graf, Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, etc. in their virtual avatar; Daily Challenges, where you get to have new set of games every day and finally The Slams where you can play tournaments from four countries (Australia, France, USA and England). The game-play doesn’t involve a lot of skill, but it is quite a good game to enjoy the sport virtually.There are a bunch of in-app purchases as well but if you don't feel like shelling out money then there is plenty of non paid Tennis action to enjoy. The app is available for free on the Google Play store for Android devices as well as on the iTunes store for iOS devices.
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Thrillophilia, the online marketplace of activities and things to do, has launched an app to the Android users. The app will enable consumers to discover and book weekend getaways, activities, adventure tours, romantic getaways and in-city activities while On-The-Go.Abhishek Daga, co-founder, Thrillophilia, said, "We want to solve the big problem of 'What to do' - be it a short in-city experience or a weekend travel. Besides travelling to nearby places, there are also 100's of in-city activities which you can discover and book on the app. This way the app will not only encourage people to travel more, but will also get them to know their city in a different light. We are currently active in few destinations and are adding 2 new destinations every week and we will have activities in 250+ cities and tourist places across India with 25000 activities to be booked by December 2015."One can search activities witin 0km to 300 km radius and tours, activities and experiences at different locations with a unique feature 'Near' and 'Far', respectively. All activities are provided on the app, from its list of registered suppliers. The app also features reviews of users who have previously been on specific tours or activities. One can contact the supplier directly in case of any queries or doubts.In India, activities market is highly scattered, and the total size of the in-city and travel activity market is roughly $5 billion for India. "We as a company are completely focused on building a next generation activity discovery platform. With our next versions of the app, the user will be able to plan activities with friends and book them. We will bring altogether a new level of personalisation, the app will be smart enough to suggest you what you can do over weekend depending on your browsing history, your social likes and shares and your travel frequency. With thousands of activities on the app, personalization, planning and understanding our user more will be the key. With data analytics and tech, we are entirely focused in building world's best platform to book activities globally. Thrillophilia's DNA is user delight and with our new mobile tech we will take the user experience to an altogether new level." Abhshek added.(BW Online Bureau)
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Facebook wants to have it all. Whether it's messaging or photo sharing, search or news, shopping or virtual reality - the social network to beat all other social networks jumps right in. That's why it can't be a total surprise that it now wants a voice assistant of its own. Apple has its Siri - the voice that started it all - and Google has its Google Now with its contextual information and search, and now Microsoft has its very promising Cortana, soon to be a part of the Windows 10 experience. So what is Facebook doing without its very own "voice"? The virtual assistant is codenamed Moneypenny, of course after James Bond's famous boss, and is still experimental, according to various news reports. But there's one big difference between Moneypenny and the voice assistants of rival companies. Facebook's voice will work inside Messenger and be focused on assisting users to get products and services by connecting with people - real people. Add that to the money transfer being built in, and you'll have a go-to platform for buying. It is interesting to note that shortly after it's IPO, Facebook was severely criticized for not having a mobile strategy in place. Today, it's Facebook that leads with what some say is the only successful mobile strategy.
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Hicare, pest management solutions and home care brand tied up with Google for its much-awaited Great Online Home Festival (GOHF) 2015 to provide Indians a healthy, hygienic, pest-free home and work environment.The 10-day GOHF will kick of on Saturday (18 July) and will feature best deals from real estate, home care and home improvement brands all together on one platform. Hicare will feature their "The Big Monsoon Offer" for its range of pest management services to keep homes free of Cockroaches, Termites, Rodents, Bed Bugs, Wood Borers, etc during the ongoing monsoon season."As more and more customers are searching online for their home services need, Hicare aims at providing expert, hassle free services at a click of a button. GOHF is a great platform further with its focus on 'home' and taking from the earlier Shopping Festivals success, said Himanshu Chakrawarti, Chief Executive Officer, Hicare.Having a pan-India presence with a roster of clients across industry Hicare has moved to being a Pest Management Solution provider driving best practices in the pest control industry.
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