The story titled ‘Tech cos making efforts to improve gender diversity’ talks about how leading tech companies such as AMD, Cognizant, Infosys, SAP Labs India and others are bringing women into their Indian workforces, through robust, focused programs initiatives. Fathima shares AMD’s plans to launch special drives to hire more women across all levels of the organisation.

Publication: The Economic Times , The Economic Times ( Online), ET Tech, Rediff RealTime News,  APZWeb, Startup Chill

Over the last couple of years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has changed from a technology with potential to an instrument of national importance across the world. The first demonstration of applications of AI has happened in the consumer space and significant economic value has been created, mainly through targeted advertising by internet giants in the USA and China.

Publication: Indian Express 

Microsoft Corp. became the latest tech giant to reduce its quarterly outlook based on the outbreak of a novel coronavirus that’s slowing production of computers and crimping sales of an array of consumer services and electronics. In a statement Wednesday, the company said it doesn’t expect to meet earlier guidance for fiscal third-quarter revenue in the Windows personal-computer software and Surface device business because the supply chain is returning to normal at a slower pace than expected.

Publication: Livemint

“Dell Technologies has the portfolio strength; we have the team and we have partners to go and take massive share in FY21. We really want to take our partnerships to new heights: added, Bill Scannell, President, Global Sales, Dell Technologies. “The changes we announced last quarter were really around our go-to-market.

Publication: SME Channels 

The Indian government on Wednesday announced it will hold RAISE 2020- ‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020’ summit in New Delhi between April 11 and April 12. The RAISE 2020 summit will also host a “Startup Pitchfest.” The summit will be aimed at bringing together people to exchange ideas on the use of Artificial Intelligence for “social empowerment, inclusion and transformation” in industries such as education, smart mobility, agriculture, and healthcare among others.

Publication: Hindustan Times

Over 40% of privacy compliance technology will rely on artificial intelligence (AI) by 2023, up from 5% today, according to Gartner, Inc. “Privacy laws, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), presented a compelling business case for privacy compliance and inspired many other jurisdictions worldwide to follow,” said Bart Willemsen, research vice president at Gartner.

Publication: CXO Today 

Honor appears to be getting in the groove, with company launching a slew of devices at its virtual launch event held in Barcelona. At the event, Honor made some crucial announcements, including the launch of its first Huawei Mobile Service (HMS) based smartphone, the 9X Pro, and the Honor View 30 which the company claims boasts of cinema-grade cameras. Interestingly, the Honor MagicBook 14 and Honor MagicBook 15 are the first PC category products to have been launched globally by Honor.

Publication: India Today 

As the US-headquartered Microsoft is expanding, scaling up its technology, it is also mindful of the data residency laws of various countries and is complying with the shifting regulations, the global tech firm’s Indian-origin CEO, Satya Nadella, told entrepreneurs and developers at the Future Decoded Tech Summit in Bengaluru on Tuesday. He also said that legislation around data protection is being introduced in the country.

Publication: The New Indian Express 

Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced in a blog post today that the company is going to invest more than $10 billion in offices and data centres across the US this year. Google currently has a presence in 26 states across the US and all the investments made this year will be focused on 11 of those. Namely – Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and California.

Publication: Hindustan Times 

The Government on Wednesday said that it was revisiting the Information Technology Act, 2000, to upgrade some laws and regulations, including privacy,as many new technologies have changed over the last 20 years and a committee is also being created to look after it. (Cyber, Microsoft)

Publication: The Hindu BusinessLine

The MAKERS India conference will bring together women leaders from diverse fields to explore ways to advance equality in the workplace. Among others, Sudha Murthy, Chairperson of Infosys Foundation; Nivruti Rai, VP (Data Center) and Country Head, Intel India; and Shaheen Mistri, CEO of Teach for India, will lead the discussions. The theme of the conference is ‘Women Who Make India’, and the discussions will explore the contribution and impact that women are making India, one breakthrough at a time.

Publication: The Hindu BusinessLine

The increasing use of smartphones and digital technologies in India is leading people to adapt to online gaming as a passion, hobby, time pass and for some a serious profession. Just in India, there are about 500 million internet users, which is about 35 per cent of the population. We stand second only to China in this regard.

Publication: Financial Express

The laptops have power buttons that double as fingerprint scanners and webcams that are recessed into their keyboards. They both run AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processors paired with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage.

Publication: India TV News

For the longest time now, Apple has relied on other companies to make processors that power its devices. Be it the iPhone, iPad or MacBook, the processor chipsets are supplied by other companies like TSMC and Intel. Now, a new report suggests that future MacBooks may be powered by Apple’s very own processors.

Publication: The Times of India

Apple might launch its first ARM-based Mac without an Intel chipset early next year. At least that’s what the reputed KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes. He believes that the company will drop the new Mac in the next 12 to 18 months. According to the 9to5Mac report, the new Mac will pack an in-house chipset instead of outsourcing it from Intel. Kuo predicted a similar situation two years ago when there were reports floating that said that Apple could ditch Intel CPUs and build its own line of processors based on ARM architecture.

Publication: Gizbot

Intel Corp on Monday launched new microprocessors, including a second generation Xeon processor for data centers and a 10nm chip for wireless 5G base stations. Demand from cloud computing companies have boosted sales of server chips, leading to strong results from Intel and its rival AMD Corp. Intel’s Xeon chips have dominated the market for server chips, but AMD has been gaining ground since its reentry into the business three years ago with rival EPYC processors that earned positive reviews here.

Publication: The Asian Age

Quantum Computing is the use of quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform computation. Quantum computers perform calculations based on the probability of an object’s state before it is measured – instead of just 1s or 0s – which means they have the potential to process more data compared to classical computers. A quantum computer works with particles that can be in superposition. Rather than representing bits — such particles would represent qubits, which can take on the value 0, or 1, or both simultaneously.

Publication: The Economic Times 

Aside from these, Microsoft also revealed some more nifty features that the Series X will ship with. As we speculated with the console’s announcement at the Game Awards, the new console will indeed have backwards compatibility support. But that’s not all, according to Microsoft, the console will support ALL four generations of Xbox games, without any developer involvement. That means say goodbye to hand-picked updates for hand-picked games.

Publication: TechQuila

Lenovo appears poised for the launch of a refreshed thin and light laptop as the teaser for a new IdeaPad S540 has popped up on Amazon.in. The one-page teaser reveals that Lenovo is about to drop on us a refreshed 15-inch model with Intel’s latest 10th Gen Core i5 CPU and Nvidia’s GeForce MX250 graphics card. The refreshed IdeaPad S540 comes with some new features, including an IR camera for face unlocking and eye-tracking. Lenovo has listed the new IdeaPad S540 on its official website with a price tag of Rs 69,990 but hasn’t mentioned when it will be available for purchase on Amazon.in.

Publication: Digit

Seoul: Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, has said its new semiconductor fabrication line in South Korea using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology has begun mass production. The South Korean tech giant said the EUV-equipped facility, named V1, in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, can produce chips using a process node of 7 nanometers (nm) and that its first products will be delivered to customers in the first quarter.

Publication: The Economic Times (ET Telecom)

A few months ago, PUBG gave both Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 users the chance to play in a single match with cross-platform support. While that was a welcome addition for many, the title is now letting both the consoler players to team up and form a single party to play. This new cross-party feature is actually a part of the forthcoming PUBG update version 6.2 and for now is available for public tests. This means it is free to any of the PS4 or Xbox One user who owns the copy of the game.

Publication: Hindustan Times 

For a long period of time now, online gaming has been stereotyped as an enormous waste of time by many. However, professional online gaming is flourishing and obtaining recognition throughout the world. In fact, it was a part of the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games and is now gaining momentum to reach higher and become a part of the Olympics as well. Considering that SEA Games are governed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), this isn’t impossible. All it needs is some support. If it had that, online gaming would have by now been a medal sport at the Olympics.

Publication: Financial Express 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (Al) is opening up the next phase of technological advances. Riding the AI wave,Google has started six AI- based research projects in India.These projects would focus on addressing social, humanitarian and environmental challenges in sectors such as healthcare, education, disaster prevention and conversation.

Publication: The Financial Express 

Students enrolled in any engineering discipline will have the study of ’emerging courses’ as part of their curriculum. For the relatively newer streams, including computer science, electrical, and electronics engineering, these ’emerging courses’ will be mandatory. Emphases will be given to interdisciplinary engineering courses moving ahead. These are some of the suggestions of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in its recent report.

Publication: Indian Express

In line with the ambitious plans of Telangana to establish Hyderabad amongst the top 25 global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation Hubs, and the State’s announcement of 2020 as the ‘Year of AI’, Intel has announced its ‘Intel AI Applied Research Centre’ in Hyderabad and IT Minister KT Rama Rao officially inaugurated its centre from the dais of BioAsia 2020.

Publication: Telanagana Today 

It is already known that Microsoft will soon launch the Surface Pro 7 in India. As of now, there is no official confirmation from the company regarding the launch date of this convertible laptop. Given that the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is visiting India next week, we can expect some major announcements from the company.

Publication: Gizbot

While the year 2019 was exciting, the years ahead promise to be even more exciting for the data center space. Looking at the rapid technological developments, we believe the following technology trends will shape the future of data centers: #1 Hyperscale Data Centers. Hyperscale refers to the capability of an IT system or architecture to scale exponentially and rapidly to respond to demand that is increasingly heavily.

Publication: Express Computers 

In UK, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge have been identified as centres for AI innovations with a plan to develop 1,000 government supported PhD researchers. China has launched five-years university program for a minimum of 500 teachers and for 5,000 students.

Publication: Financial Express 

An Applied AI Research Centre for Mobility and Healthcare, which is an in­itiative involving IIIT ­Hyderabad, chipmaker Intel, In­dian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) and Telanga­na government, was for­mally launched by Indus­tries and IT Minister K.T.Rama Rao here on Wednesday.

Publication: The Hindu 

Apple Inc warned on Monday it was unlikely to meet its March quarter sales guidance set just three weeks ago as the world’s most valuable technology firm became one of the biggest corporate casualties of China’s coronavirus epidemic. The rapidly spreading virus has killed nearly 1,900 in China and stricken some 72,000 people, confining millions to their homes, disrupting supply chains and delaying reopening of factories after the extended Lunar New Year holiday break.

Publication: News 18

The ROG G21 has top-of-the-line specifications for a Windows PC and you can pretty much run anything on this one in the best of ways. For my review, I had it connected to my 4K TV, which is not the best way to play games on a PC as capable as this one. However, I don’t have a monitor and hence, the TV was the only way to use the PC.

Publication: India Today

Only two companies in the world manufacturer CPU – Intel and AMD. While Intel is easily seen, AMD is popular for its graphics card which makes playing almost every game easy. However, it usually hard to recognize AMD and this makes it difficult to trust a relatively unknown name.

Publication: News Nation 

IT services provider Cognizant recently said the Personal Data Protection Bill – if enacted in its current form – would impose stringent obligations on the handling of personal data, including certain localization requirements for sensitive data. “Complying with changing regulatory requirements requires us to incur substantial costs, exposes us to potential regulatory action or litigation, and may require changes to our business practices in certain jurisdictions, any of which could materially adversely affect our business operations and operating results,” the IT firm said in a recent article in Economic Times.

Publication: CXO Today

Navigating the disruptive and uncertain business environment requires hiring talent that is equipped with relevant skills and striking the right balance between people and technology. In the digital age, having a digital mindset is vital to incorporate technology into existing business processes. It is easy to mistake people who are digitally aware with having a digital mindset. However, being able to use specific tools and technologies is just one part of the puzzle.

Publication: People Matters

Research data center cost-cutting and you’ll be blown away by the innovation. Many hyperscale providers are breaking ground in areas like liquid cooling, alternative energy integration, and the use of artificial intelligence for data center infrastructure management (DCIM) to eke out new levels of efficiency.

Publication: Express Computers 

IMAGE, India’s first Centre of Excellence for Gaming, VFX, Computer Vision and AI, opened in Hyderabad today. This is also the first Incubation centre for companies focussed on IP in Gaming, VFX, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision set up by Software Technology Park of India.

Publication: Express Computers 

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s semiconductor manufacturing division has won a contract to make new Qualcomm Inc 5G chips using its most advanced chip-making technology, two sources familiar with the matter said, boosting the Korean firm’s efforts to gain market share against rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Samsung will fabricate at least some of Qualcomm’s X60 modem chips, which will connect devices such as smart phones to 5G wireless data networks.

Publication: Hindustan Times

Microsoft has now listed the Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, and Surface Pro X in India. The three devices are listed on the company’s official India site, and the Surface Pro 7 is already on sale on Amazon India and Flipkart. The Surface Pro X and the Surface Laptop 3 are listed to go on sale in India soon, but their exact pricing and availability details haven’t been mentioned yet. To recall, the Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, and Surface Pro X laptops were all first unveiled in October at Microsoft’s October 2019 Event.

Publication: Gadgets 360 

To further tap engineering talent in India, Microsoft on Monday announced the launch of its third India Development Centre (IDC) in Noida, after opening two such premier engineering and innovation hubs in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The IDC-NCR will open opportunities for thousands of engineers, said the company, with plans to expand to a full-fledged development centre similar to the other two facilities.

Publication: The Hindu 

Dell Technologies Inc. is reportedly closing a deal to sell RSA Security LLC to a private equity firm for around USD 2 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported that STG Partners LLC, a private equity firm that focusses on technology, will take RSA from Dell’s hand.

Publication: The Economic Times

In UK, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge have been identified as centres forAI innovations with a plan to develop 1,000 government supported PhD researchers. China has launched five-years university program for a mini-mum of 500 teachers and for 5,000 students.

Publication: The Financial Express 

The UK said it will spend 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) on developing the most powerful weather and climate supercomputer in the world. The program aims to improve weather and climate modeling by the government forecaster, the Met Office, Business Secretary Alok Sharma said in a statement Monday. The machine will replace the UK’s existing supercomputer, which is already one of the 50 most powerful in the world.

Publication: Livemint

India today is in a prime position to not only join the global technology elite, but lead it. While the global population is ageing rapidly, India, with one of the youngest populations in the world, is at a strategic advantage with regards to demographic dividend. However, almost three-fourths of our population is unskilled.

Publication: Inventiva

Centre of Excellence (CoE) the country’s first incubation centre for companies focussed on IP in Gaming, VFX, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision set up by Software Technology Park of India and backed by MeitY and The Government of Telangana was inaugurated on Monday.

Publication: The Economic Times

Legacy technology-based services and products will continue to constitute a meaningful part of revenue for IT service providers even as the share of digital business is growing at a faster pace — this was the general view at an ET roundtable organised at the Nasscom summit on Friday.

Publication: The Economic Times 

From technology to employee experience, an array of factors are coming together to revolutionise the way we work. Amidst the rumour of predicted loss of jobs due to automation and other changes brought by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and autonomous systems, the evolution of the way we work can be quite unnerving.

Publication: The Economic Times 

Our review device came with 9th-gen Intel Core i7 processors, accompanied by 32GB DDR4 RAM. In terms of storage, the device could offer 1TB on SSD and HDD. In terms of performance,the device does an excellent job of completing most usual tasks. It seems like a device that does not break into much a sweat even dealing with high-end graphics related functions.

Publication: Deccan Herald

Just finished a long day of work on your laptop and want to lay back and binge your favorite show? You can do both and all it takes is just a flip: introducing the new ASUS Chromebook Flip C436, a powerful Chromebook that is designed to deliver an optimal multi- media experience.

Publication: CellIt

For all of their existence, fast 240 Hz multimedia monitors were relegated to just one resolution: 1920×1080 pixels. That changed with the release of the HP Omen X 27 ($649.99), an ultra-fast display that gives 1440 p multimedia users a chance to stay ahead of their 1080 p cousins.

Publication: The Economic Times 

AMD has the Radeon VII in the high-end segment but stocks are severely limited and the RX 5700 XT is a better choice, if you want to stick with AMD. Instead of classifying the cards as high-end, mid-range and entry-level on the basis of arbitrary metrics, I’ve decided to put down the resolutions for which they are good for.

Publication: Digit

Some of the sponsors and leading exhibitors including those companies which are on the board of GSMA pulled out of the event due to threat from novel coronavirus. These companies include Vodafone, Cisco, LG, Vivo, NTT Docomo, Sony, Amazon, Facebook, Mediatek, Intel, Nvidia etc.

Publication: Millennium Post 

Edelweiss Mutual Fund has a new fund offer, Edelweiss US Technology Equity Fund of Fund, which will be investing in technology companies in the United States like Netflix, Synopsys, Microsoft, Tesla, Advanced Micro Devices, Analog Devices, ServiceNow, PayPal Holdings and Alphabet (Google’s parent)

Publication: Deccan Chronicle 

The Future of Jobs Report 2018 released by the World Economic Forum suggested the Indian workforce will need between a month and a year of reskilling to stay relevant in the fast-changing global workplace. The same report also placed India fifth in the list of 30-odd countries and regions that needed to spend the most number of days in reskilling its workforce.

Publication: Livemint

For the last four-five years, every brand marketer has been struggling with one question: how do they leverage the intelligence that is gradually taking over markets and shaping products? How do they not only craft a compelling story, but also make it relevant to different consumer segments? “What makes a story stick is the personalised treatment.”

Publication: Hindustan Times 

India’s information technology and business process management sector is estimated to clock a 7.7% year-on-year increase in revenue in 2019-20, faster than the 6.1% growth reported the previous year, according to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom). Indian enterprises are expected to spend over $2 billion domestically during the period on digital transformation, while digital revenues growth during the period is seen at over 23%.

Publication: Livemint

Intel Corp and MediaTek Inc have pulled out of Mobile World Congress, joining a list of marquee names skipping the wireless industry’s biggest annual showcase because of concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus. Fellow tech giants Ericsson AB, Sony Corp and LG Electronics have already withdrawn from the conference scheduled to kick off in Barcelona’s Fira Gran Via on February 24, leaving vast swathes of unoccupied space in the venue’s most popular Halls 2 and 3.

Publication: The Hindu BusinessLine 

A number of companies ranging from Japan’s NTT Docomo and Sony to US chipmakers Intel and Nvidia had already dropped out of the four-day international telecoms conference that draws in more than 100,000 visitors. Adding to the concerns over the impact of the epidemic, the WHO warned earlier on Tuesday of a global threat potentially worse than terrorism.

Publication: The Asian Age 

The coronavirus outbreak has left the world’s biggest telecommunications show facing a crisis as major technology companies have pulled out of the 24-27 February event over safety concerns. The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which sets the tone for annual telecommunications and networking trends and spending across the industry, faces cancellation, Bloomberg reported.

Publication: Livemint

Japanese wireless carrier NTT Docomo, Sony Corp and California based chip giant Intel Corp withdrew from the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on Monday due to coronavirus outbreak. The deadly virus has killed nearly 1,113 and infected over 44,653 in mainland China, international media reported. The telecom industry’s biggest annual gathering, with companies investing millions in stands to increase their sales, was scheduled to take place between February 24 to 27 this year.

Publication: Republic World 

Over the past decade, blockchain has become a foundation technology facilitating cutting edge innovation across industries in India. We have witnessed some truly revolutionary changes across the BFSI, telecom, healthcare, e-commerce and government sectors backed by blockchain. In fact, a recent report by PwC indicates that India will become a blockchain leader amongst the ranks of USA, China and Australia by 2023.

Publication: The Financial Express 

No matter how much you play on smartphones, tablets or consoles, nothing really beats gaming on a PC. There are several gaming laptops available today which offer a great deal of performance without sacrificing much on portability.  Asus TUF FX505DY is an affordable gaming laptop that is powered by AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor with 8GB RAM and hybrid 1TB HDD + 512GB SSD storage. It features a 15.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) screen with an anti-glare coating.

Publication: Tech Radar

Redmi 9A is expected to launch in India today. Xiaomi sub-brand Redmi has been teasing its launch for the last one week — without revealing any specifics. Alongside the Redmi 9A, the launch event is also expected to bring a Redmi-branded power bank as well as the anticipated RedmiBook notebook to the country. It could be the recently unveiled RedmiBook 13. The official launch won’t take place at a physical location, though it will be live streamed through an online video.

Publication: Gadgets 360

90% invoices are processed manually, it takes about 15-30 days average processing time, 57% invoices are paid late affecting cash flows, $11-$15 average money spent in processing each invoices. An Indian startup network is looking to solve this issue by using blockchain and semantic web technology. Vaideeswaran Sethuraman, CEO & Founder. Network, shares his perspective on the big opportunity on automating manual invoices.

Publication: Express Computers

US chip giant Intel and Chinese phone-maker Vivo withdrew from the Mobile World Congress over coronavirus fears Tuesday, adding to a lengthening list of industry heavyweights pulling out of the world’s top mobile fair. The annual Barcelona-based congress normally draws more than 100,000 people from all over the world, but this year, participation has been badly hit by the outbreak of the virus, which emerged in China at the end of the year and has since claimed more than 1,000 lives.

Publication: The Economic Times 

AR is being used in education, especially to impart knowledge of abstract lessons that are difficult to grasp. AR changes the timing and location of learning which keeps dullness at bay that usually settles in an environment that students are subjected to on a daily basis. Time and again professors and teachers have stated that theoretical knowledge alone cannot help in acquiring practical skills. Internet of Things is helping plenty of sectors for control and automation with education being one of them.

Publication: The Tribune

“Earlier, we worked with partners like HP and Intel to launch smart watches and worked with a few start-ups to launch a smart band. We are also working very closely with a company in Singapore to develop some of our products. But now, with the acquisition of HUG Innovations, we believe the time has come to develop tech capability in-house,” Kant added.

Publication: The Hindu BusinessLine

Amazon, South Korea’s LG Electronics, Swedish equipment maker Ericsson and US chipmaker Nvidia have already withdrawn from MWC, which had more than 100,000 visitors and upwards of 2,400 exhibitors in 2019. MWC, due to take place on Feb 24-27, is the telecom industry’s biggest annual gathering, with companies spending millions on stands and hospitality to fill their order books. (Sony, Intel,VIVO)

Publication: The Asian Age

Exactly a decade ago, the mobile phone screens were invaded by suicidal birds and maniacal pigs. The game called Angry Birds quickly became a rage and even became a movie. Possibly the first instance where a pure virtual product became a brick and mortar brand too. A couple of years later came another game that became an even bigger rage. Candy Crush has nearly 250 Million monthly active users and is the world’s most played game ever.

 Publication: Financial Express 

It is being called the start of the fourth industrial revolution. Call it whatever, but there is no doubt that the new decade will usher in new technologies that will change the way people work, skill themselves, hire talent, and revolutionise industries like entertainment, healthcare and transport.

Publication: The New Indian Express

World-class education in India is restricted to a minuscule %age of Tier-I educational institutes where competition is tough, irrational and is mainly accessed by rich students. Dr. Mohania, Ph.D. from IIT Bombay, is an ex-IBM, India Director and Senior Professor at IIITD and has vast research and academic experience in International Institutions. In his recent visit to our NVIDIA-Bennett AI research Lab, we had a planned discussion on the way forward for the Indian Education Scenario.

Publication: The Times of India

Computing has moved on from information organisation and manipulation. Digitisation is turning everything and everyone into data, and machines can convert data into vision, hearing, text, speech, movement, patterns and decisions. With cognition coming to machines, modern computing is about autonomous learning and action by machines. Artificial intelligence (AI) is here and is evolving fast. Businesses and managers must keep up. But outside the tech industry, AI is mostly a buzzword. Publication: Financial Express

In what is being seen as a massive investment by Amazon in Telangana, the tech giant has sought environmental clearance for the construction of two data centres at a cost of Rs 11,624 crore ($1.6 billion). The data centres are expected to come up at two locations on the outskirts of Hyderabad in Ranga Reddy district. More than 90 per cent of the investment would go towards the high-end computer and storage equipment that would be housed at these two data centres.

Publication: The New Indian Express

The ongoing Coronavirus epidemic in the Chinese mainland could threaten the release of Sony’s PS5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X gaming consoles. The next-gen consoles are likely to be rolled out in the 2020 holiday shopping season. New York City-based financial services company Jefferies Group has told investors that the outbreak of the 2019-nCoV could create an impediment to the release of both the upcoming gaming consoles.

Publication: News18

Sony and Amazon are the latest companies to pull out of a major European technology show due to fears over the outbreak of the new coronavirus. Sony said Monday it’s scrapping its appearance at Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest mobile industry trade fair, in Barcelona, this month. Last week, Ericsson, one of the show’s biggest exhibitors dropped out, along with South Korean electronics giant LG and graphics chip maker Nvidia.

Publication: The Asian Age

Most organisations have been focused upon driving employee engagement in order to enhance motivation and loyalty of employees. However, lately, energised by the digital tools HR managers are excited about the concept of employee experience. Some managers feel employee engagement and employee experience are one and the same. However, there is a significant difference between the two.

Publication: Financial Express 

After South Korean company LG electronics and the Swedish telecommunication giant Ericsson, now graphics giant Nvidia has announced that it is not sending its employees to the Mobile World Congress 2020 in Barcelona due to the public health risks around the coronavirus. Nvidia was a major sponsor of the conference, and had partnered with the GSMA conference organising body to host an entire track of 10 sessions and roundtables around artificial intelligence, The Verge reported on Friday.

Publication: Gadgets 360 

The Coronavirus outbreak has shown no signs of abating yet and understandably, a whole bunch of companies are dropping out of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) this year. The MWC is scheduled for the end of February in Barcelona. All companies attending are vary of the outbreak and have expressed apprehensions while some have decided to pull out entirely, not willing to take any chances.

Publication: Hindustan Times 

Recent reports reveal that Apple might introduce AMD processors for the next MacBook. Several references have AMD CPUs within the code of the latest macOS Catalina betas. It is likely that Apple is testing how AMD processors run with the Mac computers. The references have speculated that the iPhone maker might release Macs and AMD PCs.

Publication: Gizbot

M ediaTek, the world’s fourth- largest global fabless semi- conductor company, today unveiled its Helio G70 and G80 mobile gaming-focused chipsets. The newest G Series chipsets feature HyperEngine game technology, advanced multi-camera and unrivalled connectivity for uninterrupted gameplay. The Helio G70 and G80 are aimed at new premium smart- phone users and gaming enthusiasts who want high-end features at mid-tier price points.

Publication: Telangana Today

A fortnight after making it public that judiciary is exploring use of artificial intelligence to speed up justice delivery, Chief Justice S A Bobde on Saturday said traditional methods of arbitration in India could be augmented by use of AI to achieve international standards. Speaking at an inter- national conference on ‘Arbitration in the Era of Globalisation’, organised by Indian Council of Arbi- tration and FICCI, the CJI said, “As we conceptualise international arbitration in a globalised era, we must also be cognisant of the synergistic opportunities available for international arbitration through utilization of disruptive technologies.

Publication: The Times of India

While everyone has been running behind modern gaming console ( PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, etc), there is a considerably notable number of gamers who still love PC games. PC gaming isn’t easy. It requires a high level of multitasking capability along with a stupendous level of mental processing speed.

Publication: The Times of India 

A large portion of Windows 10 users began taking to social media to report that they were encountering issues with the OS’s search functionality. Several websites such as ZDNet and others were quick to pick up on this issue when it first started taking place on Wednesday morning. Users reported that when clicking the magnifying glass icon to open the Search function, the window was completely blank.

Publication: The Asian Age 

The emergence of new-age technologies such as AI, ML, and cloud analytics, has disrupted IT operations, business models, and markets – creating a need for organisations to revamp their traditional IT infrastructures. To gain a competitive edge and to overcome significant challenges such as managing numerous workloads, organisations are heavily investing in transforming their IT infrastructure.

Publication: Express Computers

The Trump government has called on a number of top American companies, including Microsoft, Dell and others, to develop alternative 5G technology to counter Huawei. The Chinese tech giant is way ahead of its peers when it comes to 5G technology and infrastructure, however, the US has banned the company from supplying 5G infrastructure to its telecom providers.

Publication: TechRadar

Qualcomm tamped down expectations for sales growth next quarter, saying the payoff from the introduction of smartphones capable of using new high-speed wireless net- works will take longer than anticipated. The chipmaker, which has tied its success to the roll out of fifth-generation, or 5G, networks, gave a sales forecast for the second fiscal quarter that topped analysts’ estimates

Publication: The Times of India

A few of the top holdings of the underlying fund include Synopsys, Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices, Analog Devices, ServiceNow, PayPal Holdings and Alphabet (Google’ Parent)

Publication: The Hindu BusinessLine 

Deployment of the public cloud computing system can add around USD 100 billion to the Indian economy and generate 2.4 lakh direct jobs by 2023, a report released on Wednesday said. “Public cloud deployments in India have the potential to contribute approximately USD 100 billion in GDP (gross domestic product) cumulatively from 2019 to 2023. When annualised, this is equivalent to 0.6 per cent of GDP and 15 per cent of the GDP impact of the IT industry and 25 per cent of the textile industry in India,” the Google Cloud-BCG joint report said.

Publication: Financial Express 

India’s public cloud deployments is poised to become an $8 billion industry in 2023, says a combined report by Google Cloud and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The business efficiencies and growth resulting from public cloud deployments also have the potential to create up to 240,000 jobs and impact another 743,000 jobs through second order effects from 2019 to 2023.

Publication: Livemint

Digital CFOs are technology savvy chief financial officers, who think about new growth models. “They think about where the organisation will be in the future in order to maximise shareholder value. I don’t think in today’s environment I can foresee any organisation that can afford to have a CFO that only works on the numbers,” Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, global strategy leader, Cloud Business Group, Oracle, tells Sudhir Chowdhary in a recent interview. Excerpts:

Publication: Financial Express 

Artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies such as virtual personal assistants and chatbots are rapidly making headway into the workplace. By 2024, Gartner predicts that these technologies will replace almost 69% of the manager’s workload. “The role of manager will see a complete overhaul in the next four years,” said Helen Poitevin, research vice-president at Gartner. “Currently, managers often need to spend time filling in forms, updating information and approving workflows. By using AI to automate these tasks, they can spend less time managing transactions and can invest more time on learning, performance management and goal setting.”

Publication: Financial Express 

Accenture opened a new Innovation Hub in Hyderabad, where clients can co-innovate with Accenture by ideating, rapidly prototyping and then scaling disruptive products and services for the digital economy.  The latest addition to Accenture’s global innovation network, the Hyderabad Innovation Hub is spread over 300,000 square feet where clients can co-innovate and co-create solutions with more than 2,000 Accenture professionals with expertise across multiple industries and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, security, extended reality, automation and blockchain.

Publication: TechNutter

Why do you think so fewer women in the tech space, or in the field of entrepreneurship, for that matter? There is a significant population of women in tech space doing junior roles between the age group of 22- 30. However, there is a drastic dip in the count of women who occupy mid and senior management roles. This is predominantly due to several factors like marriage, relocation after marriage and child birth, to name top few reasons.

Publication: Express Computers 

Acer, in a precautionary move in the wake of the spread of the coronavirus announced that an Esports tournament hosted by it called the Asia Pacific Predator League 2020, scheduled to be held from February 19th to 23rd in Manila, Philippines has been postponed “in the interest of the health and wellbeing of the tournament’s competitors, spectators and staff during this period”.

Publication: The Economic Times 

The emergence of new-age technologies such as AI, ML, and cloud analytics, has disrupted IT operations, business models, and markets – creating a need for organisations to revamp their traditional IT infrastructures. To gain a competitive edge and to overcome significant challenges such as managing numerous workloads, organisations are heavily investing in transforming their IT infrastructure.

Publication: TechNutter

Keeping up with the changing business landscape, HR needs to be agile and collaborative to succeed. We need to be in sync with technological advancements like AI, chatbots, and data intelligence, to improve efficiency and create a strong talent structure. HR partners need to consult with business stakeholders, study best practices and design policies in line with today’s business dynamics that address the millennial mindset.

Publication: Human Capital 

The invention of semiconductor is considered as one of the most important discovery of science. A small device is capable and smart enough to conduct electricity at high temperature and at low temperature act as an insulator. This tendency of the device is remarkable and important for machines across the globe. However, there are chances that the devices may lack quality assurance while manufacturing hence the demand for semiconductor assembly and test services gets major push.

Publication: ELE Times

The Union budget proposal by the Indian Finance Minister, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman to introduce a policy to enable private sector to build Data Centre parks throughout the country will play a key role in shaping India as the World’s Data Center Hub. Today, India’s data center footprint is estimated at 11 million square feet. It is likely to grow to 30 million square feet by 2030 and could perhaps cross 100 million by 2060 comprising of 5,000 edge data centers across the country.

Publication: Express Computers

India is becoming a development hub for games, opening up job opportunities in the sector. Currently, close to 23,000 gaming-based job openings are available, with salary packages ranging from Rs 3 lakh to a little over Rs 40 lakh, according to specialist staffing firm Xpheno. UBISOFT, 99Games, GSN, Moonfrog Labs, EA, Nazara Technologies, Octro and Dream 11 are some of the big names that are hiring. In India, around 200 startups serve various game-related production markets.

Publication: The Economic Times 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech was replete with geeky terms. One of them was quantum technology. “Quantum technology is opening up new frontiers in computing, communications, cyber security with wide-spread applications. It is expected that lots of commercial applications would emerge from theoretical constructs which are developing in this area,” Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance, said.

Publication: Business Today

Back in 2016, Telangana had released its ICT policy and had envisioned to extensively use emerging technologies. To operationalise this vision, Rama Devi Lanka, Director -Emerging Technologies, Officer on Special Duty, ITE&C Department, Government of Telangana. The ET Wing acts as a nodal agency which proactively drives adoption of emerging technologies across user departments in Telangana, developing innovative government solutions to help citizens and preferentially procures solution from start-ups.

Publication: Express Computers

Public cloud has emerged as an effective way for these IT enterprises to address their challenges regarding data management. Considering its advantages, Indian IT businesses are increasingly moving away from hardware-heavy on-premise systems toward cloud setups. The potential of cloud computing in India is evident from the fact that the market value of cloud solutions here increased from $1.3 billion in 2016 to $2.2 billion in 2019.

Publication: Financial Express 

The government’s priority is the development of a corruption-free, citizen-friendly, and growth-friendly environment. The objective of the government is to provide for maximum governance with minimum government. In this complex, tech-savvy age, technology is seen as the need of the hour.

Publication: Moneycontrol

The last decade has brought about a huge revolution in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) cutting across industries. These changes brought an evolution in the overall operating scenario of companies by providing them insights to improve their product and service offerings. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that AI made lives easier through chatbots, algorithms, recommendation engines, hardware infrastructure, language processing and much more.

Publication: ET CIO

Credit disbursal systems in the future will be entirely based on data, technology and artificial intelligence (AI) which would help in calculating non-performing assets (NPAs), enable faster credit decisions and lending would be based on working capital and not assets, Nandan Nilekani said in Bengaluru, on Tuesday. He said that from the current lending crisis, and the NPA situation among banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFC), will emerge the next generation of credit, which will be based on technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data.

Publication: Livemint

Accenture today opened a new Innovation Hub in Hyderabad, where clients can co-innovate with Accenture by ideating, rapidly prototyping and then scaling disruptive products and services for the digital economy. The latest addition to Accenture’s global innovation network, the Hyderabad Innovation Hub is spread over 300,000 square feet where clients can co-innovate and co-create solutions with more than 2,000 Accenture professionals with expertise across multiple industries and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, security, extended reality, automation and blockchain.

Publication: Express Computers

The Budget proposal to provide an outlay of Rs 8,000 crore for quantum computing may help make India the world’s third biggest nation in the sector after the US and China, according to experts. Presenting her second Union Budget on Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted that quantum technology is opening up new frontiers in computing, communications, cyber security with widespread applications.

Publication: The News Minute

A Niti Aayog discussion paper has made a case for using blockchain technology to resolve business and governance process inefficiencies. The draft discussion paper titled ‘Blockchain: The India Strategy’ suggested that regulatory infrastructure should be put in place for evolving a vibrant blockchain ecosystem. It also pitched for creation of a National infrastructure for the deployment of blockchain solutions with in-built fabric, identity platform and incentive platform.

Publication: Financial Express 

The budget proposal to create internships opportunities with local bodies will help tackle the engineering unemployment in the country, experts said. But some also expressed doubt over state’s expertise in implementing internship programmes. As much as 60% of the more than 8 lakh who graduate from the country’s engineering colleges every year remain unemployed, according to data from the All India Council for Technical Education.

Publication: The Economic Times 

An incentive policy for the private sector companies to set up data centre parks in India will make it affordable for firms to store data locally vis-à-vis other locations such as Singapore, and also prepare them for the deluge of data which is expected to be generated in the country in the next few years with the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G.

Publication: The Economic Times

While Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2020 has received mixed reactions across industry sectors, the tech manufacturing sector seems to be upbeat. They believe that the FM’s push for the manufacturing of mobile phones, semiconductors, and electronics is a good sign for companies looking to invest in India.

Publication: CXO Today

The road to jobs, particularly better paying jobs, runs through skills training. The equation here is simple – the skilled are more productive and those who are productive ideally should be paid more. Vocational training, therefore, has been the government’s priority. This was once again reinforced in Budget 2020, presented by Minister of Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman.

Publication: Business Today

A plethora of Indian start-ups have been using new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to defray costs and address challenges, and now the government is also catching up in the game. This was the first Budget where finance minister

Publication: Financial Express 

An incentive policy for the private sector companies to set up data center parks in India will make it affordable for firms to store data locally vis-à-vis other locations such as Singapore and also prepare them for the deluge of data which is expected to be generated in the country in the next few years with the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G.

Publication: The Economic Times (ET Tech)

Budget 2020 India: The Union Budget 2020 came with some firsts for India’s new economy, Intellectual Property (IP), healthcare and infrastructure sectors. What was common to all these areas during the Budget presentation was the technological twist they came with. The announcements made by the FM in terms of creating and protecting IP has been lauded by India Inc. The proposed digital platform for capture of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and an Institute of Excellence to work ‘on the complexity and innovation in the field of IP’ have been a hit with the people working in tech, product and associated legal industries.

Publication: Financial Express 

Rs. 8000 crore allocation for National Mission on Quantum Computing. This puts India in the elite list of countries that are embracing a new frontier in technological advancements. Companies like Google and IBM have barely scratched the surface in creating real-life use cases from quantum computing, but India earmarking more than a billion-dollar for this initiative will give us an edge in the decade to follow.

Publication: Financial Express 

The government has increased the outlay for digital India programme by 23 per cent to Rs 3,958 crore for 2020-21 compared to the actual allocation in the current fiscal. The increase has been mainly on account of incentives to be given for electronic manufacturing, research and development, development of manpower for the segment, cyber security and promotion of IT and IT enabled services.

Publication: Financial Express

That is one of the reasons that AI has grown to become one of the major game- changing innovations in medical industry. Microsoft last week announced,that it shall be investing S40 million to harness the power of AI for health. While Microsoft will be emulating Google’s work on diabetic retinopathy, the company plans to do much more than that.

Publication: Financial Express

Arvind Krishna, the head of IBM’S cloud and cognitive software unit and who was a principal architect of the company’s purchase of Red Hat, has been promoted to the position of chief executive officer, replacing Virginia Rometty.

Publication: Business Standard