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The author is Assistant Editor at BW Businessworld
Nissan Motor India launched its much awaited seven-seater multi utility vehicle (MUV) new Nissan Evalia on 25 September in Delhi. It has been priced between Rs 8,49,000 and Rs 9,99,000 (ex-showroom price).The Evalia will be available in four versions and all four will run on diesel only. "The Nissan Evalia is the first MUV that packs drivability and fuel efficiency up to 19.33 km," according to G.M. Singh, vice chairman & managing director, Hover Automotive India (HAI).Evalia is designed in Japan but has key contributions from Nissan's European RD and design facilities. Evalia is built alongside NV200 at Nissan's Barcelona manufacturing plant in Spain.Powered by the K9K straight-4 turbocharged diesel from Renault Nissan’s engine family, Evalia can churn out 85 PS of power at 3750 rpm and a maximum torque of 200 Nm at 2000 rpm. With a smooth-shifting five speed manual transmission, the Evalia delivers a fuel efficiency of 19.3 kmpl of diesel (ARAI certified). Nissan will target to produce between 2,000 and 2,500 Evalia models in a month. "We are now working on how to cope with the existing manufacturing plant. We are enhancing the capacity in our existing plant. If necessary, to expand manufacturing capcaity, we will invest in a new plant", said Takayuki Ishida, managing director and chief executive officer, Nissan Motors India. Under Nissan Power 88 plan, Nissan will launch 10 new variants by 2016. They will try to launch at least two models in a year. "All the 10 new models will come under Nissan only. In future, some model could be shared with Renault but it will vary from model to model". SPECIFICATIONS1.5 L 4 cylinder engine, with intercooler and a 5 speed gearbox, engineered to enhance the emission performance and fuel efficiencyABS+EBD, Electric controlled ORVM & Follow me headlamps as standard in all variantsAn ultra short turning radius of 5.2m to ensure easy maneuverability and convenient parking into the tight city spacesReverse parking camera with colour monitor in instrument panel Ergonomically placed gear lever on dashFold-down tables with built-in cup holdersLess than 1.9m high allowing easy entry to most multi-storey and height-restricted car parksWide frontal visibility and high driving position Sliding doors with entry step and grab handles, providing easy entry and exitAttractive and easy-to-clean seat fabricA 12V electric outlet to plug in games or laptopspoonam(dot)kumar(at)abp(dot)in
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World DIDAC India 2012, a three-day annual bringing together the education and training industry at a common platform was held in New Delhi recently. The exhibition showcased many new technologies, new teaching approaches, new contents, innovative materials, technology instruments, projectors and more.A platform for collaborating, exchanging, promoting and networking, this time the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was the event partner.BenQ, SMART Boards, Panasonic, Samsung and Educomp were at the event for promoting their existing products and launched new products as well. The BenQ product launched included laser projector MW61ST, MW860USTi, MX518 using pioneering Top Bottom 3D display capabilities & GP10, the DVD docking 500 Lumens LED projector.Samsung was promoting Galaxy Tab1 & Tab2, Galaxy Note, Notebook and Samsung Smart School for Tab, laptops and Samsung Smart School for web servers. Samsung Smart School is a device that can be installed on tablets, laptops and web servers. This programme (Samsung Smart School), installed on the laptop used by the teacher, provides features to manage students information, share course material files with students and view/answer questions from students.HCL's Digischool is a learner-centric interactive multimedia learning solution that brings collaboration and interactivity into the classroom.Mathematics is a problematic subject for many children. As SMART Notebook Math Tools says maths problem can be solved with this software. It's easy to make math lessons engaging and easy to understand. This add-on software combines all the tools to prepare lessons, teach math concepts and solve equations. And everything is at your fingertips, so there is no need to import symbols or swith between applications.The major partnered was the World Didac Association and supported by the British Education Suppliers Association (BESA) and DiDACTA, Germany. poonam(dot)kumar(at)abp(dot)in
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BenQ announced the launch of its palm-size mobile projector Joybee GP2 in India on Wednesday. The projector is specifically designed for multi-purpose usage such as multimedia digital entertainment, educational purpose, business presentation and with more focus on travelling.GP2 has been designed to combine ease-of-use with optimal performance allowing users to create big picture screening experience. The device has all-in-one iPhone/iPod compatible dock including optional battery pack, highly power-efficient 3LED projections technology, 720p HD-ready short-throw projection, 200 ANSI lumen brightness, superior multimedia tablet connectivity, multiple format support, SD card slot, USB reader, file transfer to 2GB on board memory from computers and two 2W stereo speakers.The Joypee GP2 is built around a DLP chip along with an LED light source which can be project for 30000 hour without decrease brightness in the Eco Mode.Rajeev Singh, Country Head & general Manager, BenQ India said "GP2 is not a replacement of the LCD/LED/TV but it can be use as a portable TV set while you are on vacation".The GP2 can project up to a maximum image size of 160 inches. It has 1.13 short throw projections which can fetch your image up to 44-inches at a distance of 1-metre. It has two in-built speakers that can be useful for living rooms, offices and listening music via iPod dock.The product will be available in the market from next month at the price of Rs 39,167 (the optional battery will charge Rs 5000 more)."We have launched this product in 20 countries covering all four metros and B class cities including Chandigarh, Lucknow, Indore, Chochin, Bhubneshvar and Guhavati is more a more focused market for us", added Rajeev.The product will be available at all the leading stores which are projecting LCD, gaming device etc. including Croma stores, also alternate channels like online shopping websites. According to the company, they are planning to sell 2500 devices in this financial year with targeting more individuals through retail chain stores.
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If it is January, then it is time for the auto expo, one of the most awaited events every year. Auto Expo 2012 was kick-started with a curtain raiser ceremony on Tuesday (3 January 2012). This year, the theme is Green Technology and Clean Technology - Mobility For All — with special emphasis on safety and the need for environment-friendly fuels and vehicles, technological advancements and innovative designs in vehicles.The 11th Auto Expo 2012 organised by the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) is being held between January 7 and 11, 2012 at Pragati Maidan.Over 1,500 participants from 24 countries including Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, Korea, the UAE, the UK, the US and many other countries will be present at the 11th Auto Expo.Over 600 automotive component players will be showcasing their latest technologies. Innovative products including fully built off-the-road vehicles too will be unveiled by a few.The automotive industry will be looking forward to launching 50 new vehicles including cars, two-wheelers and commercial vehicles to a range of electric and hybrid vehicles, besides modified vehicles.Global companies such as Polaris (USA), Triumph (UK), BMW (with Mini and Motorad range), Vespa, PSA Peugeot, Nissan, Ssangyong (Mahindra Group), Paccar (from the Netherlands) and almost all the Indian car makers are launching new variants.The debut of South Korea's Ssangyong, owned by Mahindra & Mahindra, and product launches from Toyota Motor Corp and Renault SA will underline the country's importance to the world's biggest carmakers.BMW AG, market leader in the luxury segment, will unveil its Mini brands in India for the first time.Carmakers are also set to muscle in on India's popular SUV segment, which fared better than smaller cars last year, with an offering from Maruti, a widely-anticipated four-wheel debut from motorcycle experts Bajaj Auto, and a multi-utility model launch from South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co.Luxury carmakers, riding 40 per cent annual sales growth in India, will use the expo to increase their product lines, with Daimler AG's Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen AG's Audi rolling out new SUV and sports car models.Rajive Kaul, Chairman, steering committee, Auto Expo 2012 said: "This edition of auto expo would strive to boost the auto sector in spite of negative growth in the passenger vehicle and three wheeler segments in the last quarter of 2011. The auto expo thus begins with a positive note for the industry.The organiser has launched a few new facilities for its visitors. The gate number 10 of Pragati Maidan will be open especially for metro commuters and tickets will be available at metro ticket counters as well. Gate number five will be open for those who buy tickets from bookmyshow.
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Gunnebo India, a Swedish security group, which has been present in India for over 80 years and makes safe deposit lockers, vault doors, fire resistant cabinets and ATM safes, is now looking for opportunity in infrastructure and banking sectors here.Gunnebo's customers are primarily retail banks, central banks, CIT companies and it is now ready to enter into infrastructure such as DMRC project, airports, entrance control etc.Per Borgvall, Global CEO and President of Gunnebo Security says "with a view on future and to expand our current portfolio in India, we have plans to invest Rs 30 crore in a manufacturing plant at Halol, Gujrat to expand capacity by 75 per cent from the current level."Other than Halol, Gunnebo has another unit in Chennai.He said the company is planning to continue investing in the growth markets like India, China and Indonesia. The four key businesses where the company invests are core banking security and cash handling, secure storages, entrance control (infrastructure security) and global services.India continues to be one of the most important markets for Gunnebo and possesses great potential for growth, says Borgvall.He said currently India contributes to around six per cent of the company's revenues globally and is growing at 25 per cent compounded annual growth rate and that they would like to maintain a similar profit rate in the next two years.Gunnebo is a Swedish listed global security group operating in 31 countries across the globe and with presence on a further 100 markets though agents and distributors. It provides integrated security solutions to customers that set high standards on secure is a world leading supplier of high graded fire and burglary resistant safes.It has been active on the Indian security market through its subsidiary Steelage since 1932. Steelage was acquired into the Group in the year of 2000. It also markets and sells products and solutions for secure storage under the well-known brand Chubb safes.
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For all the busy digeratis forever looking for one-stop applications spanning their internet and mobile gadgets, here's another one - the Evernote.Launched in 2008, Evernote is the note taking application that can be accessed anytime and anywhere over the internet. One can save or make documents, photos and videos in it. For documents, it has unlimited space. However, photos and videos have limited space till 60MB in free version and 1GB for Premium users. Plus side, there is no overall account limit.Started in California in 2007 by Stephan Pachikov, founder of ParaGraph and ParaScript and Phil Libin of CoreStreet, Evernote is planned as an extension of the human memory. Dmitry Stavisky, VP of International Operations, Evernote Dmitry Stavisky, VP of International Operation, Evernote says: "The idea came about because no one is satisfied with one's biological memory, we all forget things. Everyone wants a better memory. So we decided to build an external brain".Evernote service can be accessed using the web client (www.evernote.com) or native apps on many platforms, including: Windows, Mac OS X, iOS (iPhone, iPod, iPad), Android (smartphones and tablets, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry, Palm WebOS."We love working with mobile carriers. A great example is DOCOMO and provider of comprehensive mobility solutions for Japan and overseas markets. DOCOMO has preinstalled Evernote on all of its Android devices, and Docomo provides one-year of Evernote Premium for free to its customers", added Stavisky.Over 14 million people use Evernote worldwide and the company is adding over one million new users every month. Of this, about 5 per cent are Premium users paying $5 a month for a more fully-featured version.How it is different from other similar applications? Evenrnote has a search function combined with tags which allows you to be as organised or disorganised as you like, and you'll still find the info you're looking for."Dropbox is an extension of your file system. The two don't actually compete, but are in fact complimentary", said Stavisky.The extra features come with the Premium account, the main ones being: Higher monthly upload of 1GB (overall account total has no maximum for free or Premium) Access to notebooks offline (iOS, Android, Windows Phone) when you are travelling outside of your mobile territory. For example, accessing applications on your phone while abroad or on roaming fees can quickly add up, Evernote Premium gives you a way around these fees. Editing of shared notebooks. Ability to search within scanned PDFs
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According to a survey by Symantec, small businesses are very interested in utilising virtualisation technology — the process of creating a virtual environment for the regular IT infrastructure such as a hardware platform, operating system, a storage device or network resources — and witnessing a wide range of potential benefits.Ajay Goel, MD, India & SAARC, Symantec says "while the majority of small businesses have shown an interest in virtualisation technology, they are still in the early stages of adoption". He adds that the survey reveals that only eight per cent have already implemented virtualisation.The study reveals that about 72 per cent of small businesses across the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region are at least considering virtualisation.In a related finding, businesses are far more comfortable with web and database management applications than with more critical applications such as accounting, ERP and CRM software. This indicates that while organisations are eager to see the benefits of virtualization, they are still reluctant to risk placing business-critical apps into a virtualised framework.In his storage and back-up predictions for Symantec in 2012, Vijay Mhaskar, VP, Information Management Group believes that, "companies that adopt a silo approach will be laggard in the Virtual Machine adoption race. Their Return on Investment for virtualisation will continue to decrease as operational costs of running separate environments slow the ability of organisations to convert from physical to virtual. The days that companies could afford separate storage management and backup software for virtual and physical servers are numbered." Data Protection WoesDespite the enthusiasm small businesses are showing, many of them are failing to sufficiently protect the information they place into the virtualised environment. Only 13 per cent perform regular backups on virtualised servers and 24 per cent back up infrequently or not at all.More than half of the organisations in the survey cited budgetary issues as the reason for not performing regular backups, with some blaming staffing issues.Still, the backup market is growing fast. Backup integrated Virtual Machine protection, deduplication, snapshot management, appliances and some key changes to the operating model are driving the change. "What used to be considered a mature and slow growth market is putting up some impressive numbers." adds Mhaskar.Organisations that rely on snapshots rather than backup and don't implement deduplication or granular recovery technology for virtual environments will see backup and recovery windows increase. However, new technologies introduced by vendors will change the way data protection is done, saving organisations millions of dollars each year. Virtualisation, with the various benefits it has to offer is being seen amongst SMBs, as a cost effective technology that enhances their business efficiency. In fact, 72 per cent of the respondents from APJ in the Symantec 2011 Small Business Virtualization Poll said that, their organisations are considering virtualisation. A majority of the respondents cited cost efficiencies and disaster-recovery readiness as benefits they're hoping to gain from adoption of it.Adopting and maintaining virtualisation in an organisation's IT infrastructure requires careful planning, in order to maintain security while also improving efficiency. The following recommendations can help small businesses achieve the maximum benefits of virtualisation:Define a virtualisation strategy: Work with an IT consultant to develop a strategy. Proactively develop guidelines and assess your data protection and security needs. Determine if moving to these cloud services are right for you. Once you have a strategy, develop a plan and stick to it.Secure your virtual environments: Consider what security solutions you need to secure your virtual environment, including a firewall, antivirus, and endpoint security. Make sure you have established security practices as an additional layer of protection.Protect your data: Follow a simplified approach to backup. Implement a solution that protects both physical and virtual environments. Consider a data deduplication solution to save space and time.poonam(dot)kumar(at)abp(dot)in
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When it comes to buying a car, consumers usually enquire about mileage, road safety and maintenance cost etc. Nowadays, more and more cars come with new features and hi-tech gadgets for the customers. But the best of cars, can't make driving in congested roads easy. A group of researchers from Australia were recently in India to hold talks with IT firms like Tech Mahindra, TCS, Infosys, HCL and Cognizant for developing a system to address traffic problems.Professor Jugdutt Singh, Director of the Centre for Technology Infusion at the La Trobe University, Australia, who was a member of the research delegation, during a recent visit to New Delhi informed the media that the researchers at the university have already built a patented system for automobiles using sensor technology to enable vehicle-to-vehicle communication.The pilot phase of implementing the technology has already started in Victoria, Australia. By using this technology, cars can signal to each other to align in such a way that congestion is avoided.Some firms have already shown interest in collaborating for developing advanced transportation software, which help ease off the traffic especially in regions where huge numbers of vehicles ply on less road space, leading to congestions.While planning to implement the technology in India, the first thing that came to his mind was the traffic in Delhi and Mumbai, said Professor Singh.A sensor with Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) technology embedded in the vehicles convey information about the traffic scenario while on-the-drive display and voice messages help the driver avoid heading towards traffic jams. Also, this information can be shared amongst vehicles within a radius of 500 meters to 1 km. This technology will also keep a check on errant drivers as a warning will be sent to the rashly driven vehicle by the other car near it using the same technology. However, this will only be possible if all cars come embedded with the sensor.The privacy settings have been designed in a way that information regarding only traffic congestion, accidents on the road, rash driving and related matters could be exchanged and couldn’t be misused.Ccording to the researchers, this could be the next big thing after the mileage and maintaining cost in encouraging prospective buyers.Singh mentioned that the cars with this new technology will start rolling out by 2015.In the long run, the researchers can look at further upgrading the solution by connecting with the emergency help-lines such as fire brigade, police control room, ambulance services, women help-lines etc which will come as a handy help to anyone and everyone driving on the road. Technology is a tool which has a large scope for improvement with each passing day and with the kind of resources available these days it’s even easier to implement it.
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