The Government of Punjab has appointed Suresh Arora as the new Director General of Police, who is a 1982 batch IPS officer.

Arora’s appointment came after a meeting between Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, Shiromani Akali Dal President and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal at Badal’s residence.

Arora has played an important role in fighting terrorism. He was posted as SP and SSP when two important operations — Black Thunder I and II — were conducted. He is a post graduate in Law from the University of London and has won various gallantry medals and awards.

Arora replaces Sumedh Singh Saini, who has been transferred to the State Police Housing Corporation.

The Minister of State (MoS) in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and personnel department Jitendra Singh has launched a mobile application for the Centralised Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) portal of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) in New Delhi, and termed the initiative as a part of “ART of Governance”. The ART as spelt out by Prime Minister- A for Accountability, R for Responsibility and T for Transparency.

The features of the app include uploading of a relevant document by the complainant, monitoring of dashboard for senior officers, grievance monitoring to have holistic view, enhanced operability, forwarding multiple grievances to a single department in one stroke, and also forwarding grievances to multiple departments.

DARPG Secretary Devendra Chaudhary and DoPT Secretary Sanjay Kothari were also present on the occassion.

For the past 12 months, as many as nine lakh grievances have been lodged and only 6.47 lakh were disposed off. Taking data since Jan 1, 2012, the number of grievances was as high as 16 lakh. With the new mobile app, the number of complaints is expected to go up further.

IT giant Oracle has launched two new Cloud platforms “Oracle SCM Cloud” and “eCommerce in the CX Cloud”. The announcement was made by the firm’s Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison at the Oracle’s OpenWorld 2015 Conference taking place in San Francisco. He emphasised on maintaining security as private data is at the risk of being stolen via cyber attacks.

While Oracle SCM Cloud will offer the first complete supply chain and discrete manufacturing with 100 per cent fusion, the eCommerce in the CX Cloud platform will be a complete, integrated modern suite covering the customers’ requirements across the spectrum like marketing, sales, service and social responsibility.

Ellison said, “Oracle has committed to make its Cloud and data platforms easy, performing, compelling and secure. We will lower the costs and accelerate your power. We are building solutions that will take off your workload and give you a better performance.”

Apart from it, Ellison announced a new mobile, consumer-like Cloud UI- a state-of-the-art mobile user interface. “It is a modern tablet and smartphone-friendly Java-based platform which will become the best choice among all other mobile platforms available today,” Ellison informed.

He also announced an integrated “Just-in-Time Learning System” that will be embeded in all Oracle SaaS applications for the benefit of the consumers. “We started building all our application on the Cloud and for this, we had to rewrite our entire database. We had SaaS then. Once we had this, we found that now, we need PaaS (Platform At-A-Service),” he said.

PaaS is a category of Cloud computing services that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run and manage web applications without any complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure.

Ellison further announced the “Exadata Cloud Service” that will facilitate identical software and hardware on-premise.

The five-day event (Oct 25-29) taking place across 18 locations is going to see some of the greatest minds brainstorming on the future of the enterprise, Oracle’s integrated Cloud platform and the new era of secure computing.

Over 45 Oracle products and services will be unveiled throughout the conference during multiple sessions and events, also offering opportunities to customers, partners and peers for networking.

Fortinet- the global leader in high-performance cybersecurity solutions, has announced details of its new Secure Access Architecture. This new framework expands Fortinet’s innovative internal segmentation cybersecurity strategy, enabling organisations to seamlessly segment devices and the access layers across wired and wireless networks. The Secure Access Architecture provides a broad platform of integrated, high-performance cybersecurity solutions that span from the client to the Cloud and everything in between.

As per Gartner, “there will be 33 billion connected endpoints by the year 2020 with a majority comprised of new “headless” device types driven by the Internet of Things (IoT). The proliferation of devices and applications is posing serious challenges for organisations that need to ensure the protection of their entire network and guard against advanced cybersecurity threats. The alarming gap between the expanding access layer and adequate cybersecurity protections have been highlighted in Fortinet’s own independent research.

“As the probable first line of defence for an organisation’s infrastructure, the access layer hasn’t received the amount of attention it deserves with regard to cybersecurity,” said Michael Xie, Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer at Fortinet. “Leveraging our extensive portfolio of cutting-edge solutions and exceptional engineering capabilities, Fortinet is uniquely positioned to change that,” he added.

Fortinet’s Secure Access Architecture is designed to meet the ever-expanding demands for connectivity, while providing the high-performance cybersecurity protection that only Fortinet can deliver.

Fortinet’s Secure Access Architecture is engineered to deliver integrated protection against data breaches and cybersecurity threats at the access layer, while unifying network operations and administration. This eases the management burden on IT and arms administrators with advanced tools for deep analytics and reporting, while providing them with a flexible and broad set of access deployment offerings like:

Infrastructure: Advanced access technologies for highly mobile environments, this fast and flexible deployment option includes Fortinet’s most advanced security and networking appliances and services.

Integrated: Unified all-in-one security and access technologies are ideal for organisations seeking hyper scalability and simplified administration with integrated management of both security and access through a single pane of glass.

Cloud: Controller-less, Cloud managed wireless access points with integrated Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) capabilities is the ultimate deployment offering for organisations that want integrated security and access managed entirely in the Cloud.

The Secure Access Architecture also encompasses a breadth of advanced solutions within Fortinet’s broad end-to-end cybersecurity platform, including end-point management, wireless access points, switches, wireless LAN management, application control, advanced unified management and many more. These solutions are all backed by FortiGuard Labs’ industry-leading threat intelligence research and advanced cybersecurity services.

BARCO- a world leader in display technologies, has come up with ClickShare, an innovative wireless presentation tool. It is a useful device for standard meeting rooms and huddle rooms.

ClickShare makes connecting to the meeting room’s video system a matter of clicking a button. This one click helps the presenter get the presentation on-screen in a second, also allowing other people in the meeting to participate more actively. This is done using the unique ClickShare Button, or by installing a simple app to share content from an Android or iOS Smartphone or tablet. The result is enhanced meeting efficiency and better decision-making.

ClickShare can work as a standalone device and can also be integrated with Audio-Video conferencing setups. It is a secure and robust wi-fi device and is designed to work at all times. Further, it operates in 5GHz band apart from standard 2.4GHz band which enables it to avoid congested frequencies, unlike many other competitive devices.

In addition, ClickShare creates its own wi-fi network and completely bypasses organisational wi-fi network, thereby reducing IT interventions and allowing laptops of both internal as well as external presenters to be connected to the meeting room display in a matter of seconds.

The Government of India has appointed five IAS officers as Secretary. Those appointed are as follows:

• Aruna Sunderarajan, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, has been appointed as Secretary in the Ministry of Steel. She has replaced Rakesh Singh, a 1978 batch IAS officer of Punjab cadre.
• Navin Verma, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, has been appointed Secretary in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region. He has replaced R Vijay Kumar, a 1978 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
• Naini Jaisheelan, a 1981 batch IAS officer of Union Territory cadre, has been appointed as Secretary, Inter-state Council Secretariat in the Ministry of Home Affairs. He has replaced Praveer Kumar, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.
• Vijay Shankar Pandey, a 1979 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Secretary in the Department of Chemical and Petrochemical with effect from January 1, 2016. He has replaced Surajit Choudhary, who is a 1979 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
• Ramesh Abhishek, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, has been appointed as Secretary, Performance Management, Cabinet Secretariat.

Polycom has announced that the Directorate General Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D), a central purchase and quality assurance organisation of Government of India has awarded a rate contract agreement for the purchase of Polycom products and services. Through the rate contract agreement – supported by Inspira, a national Polycom distributor – the company will offer industry-leading video collaboration solutions and services to government institutions, helping to implement and integrate video networks within existing infrastructure.

As Polycom looks to target more government opportunities, the company’s collaborative technology and market presence are strongly placed to support national initiatives like Digital India. According to Frost & Sullivan, Polycom led the video-conferencing systems and infrastructure segment in India, with a 44 per cent market share in 2014. Improved collaboration and visual communication technology can provide skill development, introduce more virtual class rooms and extend education to rural areas, initiate remote healthcare services via telemedicine, and implement eGovernance and Smart City programmes. Polycom aims to enhance its customer base across various government departments and ministries, including defence, railway, public sector units and citizen services.

Speaking on the award of the rate contract, Minhaj Zia, Managing Director, Polycom India & SAARC, said, “We are delighted to partner with DGS&D in providing our breakthrough collaboration solutions to government agencies. We are taking a quantum leap in hastening the digital revolution of India and firmly believe that our innovations uniquely place people at the heart of collaboration enabling them to work better, smarter and more efficiently. Polycom India remains focused on being the leading collaboration partner for our customers – whether in government or in the private sector, offering seamless user experience and open and interoperable technologies through an ecosystem of expert partners.”

Punjab will be the first State in India to have full mobile broadband connectivity from Reliance Jio Infocomm, Chairman Mukesh Ambani has said.

Speaking at the second Progressive Punjab Investors Summit in Mohali, Ambani said, “We will commit to all the additional resources it takes, so that Punjab becomes the first state in India where every single village will be covered by mobile broadband connectivity.”

Reliance Industries-owned telecom venture is also planning to officially launch 4G services in the country by the end of the year.

Ambani said, “So far, Reliance has invested Rs 3,900 crore in Punjab, much more than the committed Rs 2,000 crore. Overall, RIL has invested Rs 92,000 crore in its ambitious telecom venture.

Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal said, “Jio would be able to cover the entire State with high-speed broadband services by January next year.”

The Reliance Chairman further said, “Jio’s services would not only help traders, but also pertinently aid the State’s youth as the digital infrastructure will offer the opportunity to create value and to make sure that they can start businesses and create value for themselves in this new world.”

Earlier, RIL projected that the first commercial year of operations for Jio would be in the financial year 2016-17. It has completed the network rollout across the country and tests for a pan-India launch are on. Reliance will start selling 4G-enabled services in the market from next month under the name ‘LYF’.

Fortinet, Intel Security, Palo Alto Networks and Symantec Corp, co-founders of the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA), have announced publication of research examining the evolution and global impact of the aggressive CryptoWall ransomware.

Analysis of the CryptoWall Version 3 Threat is the first published report using combined threat research and intelligence from the founding and contributing members of the CTA.

This whitepaper provides organisations worldwide valuable insight into the attack lifecycle of this lucrative ransomware family, which is associated with over USD325 million in revenue for the malicious actors behind it, as well as recommendations for prevention and mitigation. The CTA further discovered 406,887 attempted CryptoWall infections, 4,046 malware samples, and 839 command and control URLs for servers used by cybercriminals to send commands and receive data.

The hundreds of millions in damages span hundreds of thousands of victims across the globe. North America was a particular target for most campaigns. All of the key findings and intelligence in the report are based on the collective visibility the members of the CTA have into the CryptoWall v3 threat.

Speaking about the initiative, Rick Howard, Chief Security Officer, Palo Alto Networks, said, “This type of collaborative research by security vendors reflects the power of effective threat information sharing and the positive effect it can have on helping maintain trust in our digital world. As a founding CTA member, we are committed to the idea that this new way of working together – of combining intelligence on a common adversary and sharing cyber threat information as a public good – is to the benefit of all organisations in the battle against cybercrime.”

Derek Manky, Global Security Strategist, Fortinet, said, “The explosion of connected devices and our reliance on digital platforms have created an environment that is both empowering and creating new ways for adversaries to penetrate networks. Managing this risk is a shared responsibility.

“We need to step forward, and not wait for the adversary to make the move first. This research demonstrates the power of the CTA partnership; when we grow our collective intelligence across all sectors, we can better combat advanced threats, deploy security controls to counteract the latest moves and deliver greater security for our customers and all organisations.”

Vice President of McAfee Labs, Intel Security, Vincent Weafer, said, “When we joined the Cyber Threat Alliance, we dedicated ourselves to working closely with our partners in industry and law enforcement to detect and disrupt cybercrime campaigns. This research demonstrates an ability to leverage our collective threat expertise and intelligence to provide enhanced protection for customers, and help us more effectively collaborate with law enforcement in order to disrupt criminal ecosystems and ultimately help bring more cyber criminals to justice.”

Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that there is a need for an open Internet platform like its proprietary initiative Internet.org in India, also saying that Facebook always supported net neutrality. Speaking at the Facebook India townhall meeting at IIT Delhi, he said, “We have always adhered to net neutrality regulations but there are several countries who still do not have norms in place.”

“We will adapt to them as soon as they are in place as we are in the favour of being 100 per cent net neutral,” he added.

Expressing his discontent over the ongoing debate on net neutrality, Zuckerberg also said, “Free basics programme under the Internet.org initiative aims to connect the next billion people and we cannot miss India in that vision as it is one of the largest democracies in the world.”

He explained that free basics do not intend to harm anyone, be it consumers or operators. “Any developer who can stream low-data consuming content can be a part of the platform”, he said

In addition to it, the CEO also said, “Internet.org is currently live in 24 countries and has 50 million subscribers. India itself has nearly over one million people subscribed to the platform.”

He also revealed that over half of the nine million users of Internet.org service signed up for a paid-for data package of some kind within the first month. It has led to a 50 per cent faster adoption of new services by the phone owners.

At present, India has no regulations on net neutrality. Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said, “The committee of the department of telecommunications on net neutrality has submitted its report. However, it is not the final report nor the government has taken any final view.”

“Based on the report, comments and suggestions received and recommendations of TRAI, the government will take a considered decision on various aspects of net neutrality, in the best interest of the country,” he said.

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., has announced a new portfolio of converged infrastructure and software solutions for Oracle Database 12c environments. These solutions, including Hitachi UCP 6000 for Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) and Hitachi Database Infrastructure Evaluation Tool (DIET) help lower the total cost of Oracle RAC 12c infrastructure through optimising hardware resources, streamlining operations and accelerating the migration to Cloud-based business. These new solutions, combined with Pentaho’s data integration, visualisation and analytics capabilities enable organisations to quickly unlock valuable insights from all data, including those contained within critical applications like SAP Business Warehouse and Oracle E-Business Suite.

Hitachi DIET, developed by top Oracle Database experts at HDS and used with more than 800 global companies over the past eight years, is a simple-to-use, powerful utility that helps customers improve Oracle Database performance and increase utilisation of the underlying storage, compute and network infrastructure. With just a few clicks, DIET provides a detailed graphical analysis and expert recommendations on how to address areas within an Oracle database environment that often leads to significant reductions in capital and operational expenses as well as improved performance. DIET is a powerful way to streamline existing infrastructure and kick-start the transformation to the Cloud and a real-time data-driven enterprise.

“Hitachi Data Systems has built a simple, yet powerful, web-based utility to quickly and effectively identify issues found in Oracle Databases,” said Nik Rouda, Senior Analyst at ESG. “With DIET, HDS can provide deep analysis of a customer’s actual Oracle environment, then use those results and their decades of hands-on experience to provide clear recommendations, which are tailored specifically to them. DIET can even diagnose issues with other vendor’s hardware.”

Because of Hitachi Data Systems’ heritage of engineering, the most reliable and Cloud-ready converged storage, compute and software solutions, more than eighty per cent of the Fortune Global 100 run Oracle Databases and applications on Hitachi solutions. As one of only nine Global Diamond Partners with Oracle, the close collaboration between companies gives customers access to complete, end-to-end solutions optimised for any Oracle environment. Hitachi UCP 6000 for Oracle RAC, Hitachi DIET and Pentaho provide the complete and cost-effective portfolio of solutions for Oracle Databases that enable business to gain agility as well as derive rich insights from all their data.

Jim Beckman, Vice President of Global Alliances and Business Development at HDS, said, “Hitachi is the leading provider of solutions enabling organisations to get the most out of their investments in Oracle Database, extract more value from their data, and better control TCO. UCP 6000 for Oracle RAC and Hitachi DIET enable flexibility to deploy Oracle and non-Oracle workloads on a variety of hypervisors and operating systems, in either virtualised or bare metal environments.”

The Delhi Government is soon going to charge fees – between Rs 50 and Rs 500 – for some of its eGovernance services, including issuing different certificates online.

About two months ago, the Revenue Department of the Delhi Government launched its eDistricts project, under which the certificates are issued and delivered online. The Department issued an order fixing the user charges for different certificates. The order is likely to come into force by the end of this month.

While income, domicile, birth, caste, lal dora and surviving member certificates will cost Rs 50, marriage and solvency certificates can be obtained for Rs 350 and Rs 500, respectively.

A senior official said, “Efforts are on to integrate the payment gateway of the eDistrict portal with the State Bank of India. The discussions are in an advanced stage and it is likely to become operational by November-end.”

Officials believe that people won’t mind paying the extra cost because the facility would make the process convenient and transparent.

According to one of the officials, “Earlier, people would run from pillar to post for the certificates, often being fleeced by touts. But after the launch of the project around two months back, people could apply sitting at home. The certificates are also delivered online and the documentation process for this is also being simplified. The number of affidavits required for it is also being reduced.

However, death certificates and disability certificates will not be charged for.

The Greater Noida Authority has said that it will put all the property-related details on the website and resolve grievances of land allottees via the online system.

An official from the Authority said, “We will soon finalise the date for providing online services. As per the plan, we will be able to put property details online by the end of November.”

At present, it takes more than a month to complete a work, such as getting mortgage permission. So, the Authority is planning to execute a job within five to fifteen days, depending on the nature of job.

An allotte, namely Rohit Mattu, said, “Let us see if the online system provides any relief to allottes. Every time we have a query or when some work has to be done, we have to visit the Greater Noida Authority office at the Chitvan Estate area.

Following the footsteps of the Noida Authority, the Greater Noida authority is also planning to develop an online facility to address the grievance through smartphone apps.

As per the officials, “Once the portal and smart app is in place, works such as execution of lease deeds, issue of no-dues certificate, transfer of plots, issue of duplicate papers, transfer/surrender of flat/house, renting permissions, transfer memorandums and mortgage permissions will be done on mobile phones itself.”

The Government of India has appointed 22 new Joint Secretaries. The new appointees are:

• Ravi Agrawal, a 1988 batch IAS officer, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Department of Disinvestment. He has replaced Kumar Sanjay Krishna, who is a 1985 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.
• Sanjiv Kumar, a 1992 batch IAS officer of Union Territory cadre, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Department of Revenue replacing Arun Goel, who is a 1985 batch IAS officer of Punjab cadre.
• Vandana Gurnani, a 1991 batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Department of Health & Family Welfare, replacing Nikunj Bihari Dhal, who is a 1993 batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre.
• Manoj Joshi, a 1989 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSME). He has replaced S N Tripathi, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre.
• U K S Chauhan, a 1986 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), replacing Rakesh Singh, who is a 1989 batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre.
• Satyendra Garg, a 1987 batch IPS officer of Union Territory cadre, has also been appointed as Joint Secretary in the MHA. He replaces Shambhu Singh, a 1986 batch IAS officer of Manipur cadre.
• Pradeep Gupta, a 1985 batch IOFS officer, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in MHA. He has replaced K K Pathak, who is a 1990 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.
• T V S N Prasad, a 1988 batch IAS officer of Hyderabad cadre, has also been appointed Joint Secretary in MHA , replacing Bhagwan Shankar, who is a 1988 batch IAS officer of Sikkim cadre.
• Amrit Abhijat, a 1995 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Housing & Poverty Alleviation. He has replaced Sanjeev Kumar, a 1993 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre.
• Kalpana Awasthi, a 1990 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion. She has replaced Subhara Singh, a 1989 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre.
• I S Chahal, a 1989 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, replacing Neerja Shekhar, who is a 1993 batch IAS officer of Hyderabad cadre.
• Pankaj Jain, a 1990 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Department of Financial Services. He has replaced Anup Wadhawan, a 1985 batch IAS officer.
• Abhay Damle, IRS (IT:1989), has been appointed as Joint Secreatry in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. He has replaced S Bandhopadhya, a 1988 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre.
• Pravir Krishna, a 1987 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Shipping vice N Muruganandan, a 1991 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
• A J V Prasad, a 1986 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre, has been posted as Joint Secretary in the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.
• Ashwani Kumar, IRS (IT: 1988), has been appointed as additional Financial Adviser and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence (Finance), replacing Prem Kumar Kataria, IA&AS, 1985 batch.
• T C A Kalyani, a 1991 batch ICAS officer, has been appointed as Joint Secretary and Finacial Adviser in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowement, replacing Kiran Puri, a 1988 batch CSS officer.
• M C Luther, a 2000 batch CSS officer, has been appointed as Protectant General of Emigrants (JS level), Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, replacing Mohanish Verma, IRS (IT: 1987).
• Kiran Puri (CSS: 1998), has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, replacing Aditya Joshi (IRAS: 1995).
• Sandeep Saxena, a 1989 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, has been appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner (JS level), ECI. He has replaced R Balakrishanan, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre.
• Rachna Shah, a 1991 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Department of Food & Public Distribution. She has replaced U K S Chauhan, who is a 1986 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre.
• Anita Chauhan (CSS:1998), has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Department of Science & Technology. She has replaced Sanjay Prasad, a 1995 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.

Anil Kumar Jha took the charge as the new Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), which is a subsidiary of Coal India Limited. He will continue to be the CMD till July 2018.

Prior to it, Jha has served as Director in Production and Planning, Manganese Ore India Limited (MOIL), since July 29, 2013.

Jha will replace A N Sahay, who supernnuated from the post on October 31, 2015.

Gartner has cited Altimetrik as a ‘Vendor to Watch’ in their report, “Market Trends: The Journey Ahead for Rapid Mobile Application Development”. This is a special report on the rapid mobile application development aimed at helping decision makers of end-user organisations. The report identifies significant trends that are influencing the market and will help the mobile development team by increasing business opportunities.

According to the 2015 Gartner CIO Survey, mobility is a top CIO initiative with 62 per cent of customer-facing applications and 48 per cent of employee-facing applications being designed for mobile as the primary or secondary consumption mechanism.

Madhavan Satagopan, CTO, Altimetrik, said, “We feel being mentioned in one of the contemporary reports on mobility is a testament of our continuous investments in this capability. Altimetrik’s Adaptive Development Framework (ADF) platform addresses the potential customer-centric future, where development is dynamic, expandable and reusable.

“We believe our mention as a Vendor to Watch in the Gartner Market Trends report validates why the world’s reputed brands rely on Altimetrik, to drive frameworks for multi-platform application development. We also believe that Gartner recognises our core principle of design-led engineering, enhanced business service integration, persona-based experience entity and a Cloud-based device lab to execute codeless automation application testing that primarily highlights our multi-platform solution,” he added.

iRevo Multimedia, founded in Silicon Valley and now firmly focused on the Indian market, has announced its alignment with the Consumer Electronic Retail chains for promoting its Smart devices range, namely iRevo Smart TV and iRevo Smart PC.

Elaborating on the announcement, Rajan Sharma, VP Sales iRevo, said, “The festive season is just around the corner and we are geared up to tap into the Consumer Electronics Channel. We are appointing ISD (In-Store-Demo) promoters all across India. As of now, we have close to hundreds of CE stores where iREVO Smart TV and PC are being displayed. We are gearing up our presence in major modern trade and online partners. Cities covered in the first phase are Mumbai, NCR, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Cochin, Ahmedabad, Surat, Anantpur, Amritsar etc.

“We have seen a good traction in the IT Channel where we have already placed our smart devices and we are now aligning with the CE Channel. iRevo Smart TV box adds a lot of value to the CE stores, especially when it is bundled with non-Smart TVs of all makes and brands. iRevo also brings value to the end consumer as he is able to experience unlimited entertainment on a large screen, i.e., without any monthly subscription,” Sharma further elaborated.

The iRevo Smart PC, which became number one best seller on Amazon during initial product launch, comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, making it easy to interact when TV (CRT or Flat panel) is used as a PC Monitor.

The Smart PC is available at a street price of Rs 6,500. It runs Microsoft Office Suite enabling consumers to create word documents, excel spread sheets and powerpoint presentations at no additional cost. Furthermore, users can enjoy various services like web browsing, do emails, chatting on Skype with family and friends, or play their favourite games from Google PlayStore.

iRevo is proud to support the Government of India’s Digital India initiative and comes with several pre-installed apps and services.

In addition, iRevo Smart TV connects to your TV (CRT or Flat Panel) and a world of entertainment is brought to your fingertip. Traditional TV shows and news or alternate internet entertainment; be it Youtube or HotStar is made available. From devotional video content to kids gaming, iRevo Smart TV has something for everyone in the family to enjoy. It is powered by iRevo Cloud and is available at a street price of Rs 7,000.

The Government of Tamil Nadu has transferred several IPS officers. Those transferred are as follows:

• Shankar Jiwal, Inspector General of Police, has been promoted and posted as ADGP, Special Task Force at Sathyamangalam.
• A K Viswanathan, City Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore, has been posted as ADGP of Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC).
• Abhash Kumar, Inspector General of Police, has been promoted and posted as Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu Police Academy.
• T V Ravichandran, Joint Director of Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau, has been appointed as ADGP.
• Seema Agarwal, Inspector General of Police, has been posted as ADGP, State Crime Records replacing Ashish Bhengra, who has further been transferred as ADGP, Operations, Chennai.
• Ayush Mani Tiwari, Deputy Inspector General of Police, has been appointed as Inspector General of Police, Armed Police, Chennai.
• Maheswar Dayal, Deputy Inspector General of Police, has been appointed as Inspector General of Police, Economic Offences Wing-II, in Chennai.
• Sumit Charan, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Villupuram, succeeded A Amalraj as Commissioner of Police, Salem City. At present, he has been transferred and posted as Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore, succeeding A K Viswanathan.
• Abhin Dinesh Modak, Deputy Inspector General of Police, has been promoted as Inspector General of Police.
• Sanjay Kumar, Deputy Inspector General of Police at Thanjavur, has been promoted and posted as Inspector General of Police, State Crime Record Bureau.
• Periaiah, Deputy Inspector General of Police, has been promoted and appointed as Inspector General of Police, Home Guards, Chennai.
• A G Mourya, Deputy Inspector General of Prisons, has been promoted and posted as Inspector General of Prisons, Headquarters, Chennai.
• A Pari, Deputy Inspector General of Police, has been appointed as Inspector General of Police, Headquarters, Chennai.
• N K Senthamarai has been promoted and posted as Inspector General of Police, Central Zone, Tiruchirapalli. He has replaced M Ramasubramani, who will take over as Inspector General of Police, Railways.
• C Sridhar has been posted as Additional Commissioner of Police, Law and order, South, Greater Chennai Police.
• S Murugan will be Inspector General of Police, South Zone, Madurai in place of Abhay Kumar Singh, who will be Inspector General of Police, Enforcement, Chennai.
• V Varadharaju will be Additional Commissioner of Police, Intelligence Section, Greater Chennai Police.
• M C Sarangan has been appointed as Inspector General of Police, Technical Services, Chennai.
• A G Ponn Manickavel has been posted as Inspector General of Police, Idol Wing, in the Economic Offences Wing, Chennai.

T-Hub, Hyderabad

Government will not interfere in the functioning of T-Hub, Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao has said.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of T-Hub in Hyderabad, he said, “We will let it function independently with a board comprising top-notch industrialists and entrepreneurs guiding it. It is not just another startup incubator. It is going to be an incubator of incubators when the second phase is completed.”

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan and renowned industrialist Ratan Tata together inaugurated the first phase of T-Hub.

The first phase, named as Catalyst, is located at the International Institute for Information Technology (IIIT- Hyderabad) at Gachibowli. Built over 70,000 sq ft area, T-Hub offers physical and virtual infrastructure.

Being taken up by the Government of Telangana, the three academic institutes namely Indian School of Business (ISB); National Law University, Nalsar and IIT- Hyderabad would provide mentorship to the hub in their respective areas of competence.

Initially, around 140 startups would be housed at the Catalyst building, with each given a time period of six months. If required, some of those can also get an extension for another six months. Later, even if they move out to let the new startups in, they will continue getting the support from the government.

In addition, the government is also planning to set up an exclusive private equity fund to provide funds to the startups incubated there.

After the launch of the first phase, the government will start working on the second phase of the project with an estimated amount of Rs 150 crore. Currently, the government is in the process of selecting the final design of the building, which will comprise a built-up area of 3 lakh sq ft.

Exuberant Support for Data Services (ESDS), managed cloud provider offering managed Datacenter services has received first cloud computing patent (no. 9176788) for its eNlight Cloud from United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Having recognised for its innovation ESDS promises to completely transform the commodity based computing into utility model.

According to Gartner report, the present average global compute consumption by any organization is extremely low at 8 per cent while it is just 5 per cent among Indian organisation. Unlike the present Pay-Per-Use Cloud model, ESDS’ eNlight Cloud deliver of an in-built intelligence to constantly monitor consumption of virtual machines and accordingly assign computing resource in real-time.

Large enterprises to SMEs are set to significantly benefit from the on-demand availability for maximum computing load and make IT investments based on their actual requirement and not on financial strength.

Piyush Somani, Managing Director & CEO of ESDS said, “90 per cent of the IT infrastructure investments go unutilised and organisations under tremendous financial stress need to quickly realise this dire state of the actual consumption v/s the dollar spent. With our strong legacy in managing thousands of virtual machines, ESDS is committed to deliver innovative Cloud technology that is scalable and affordable. Additionally, this patent is a testimony of our commitment to deliver on government’s ‘Digital India’ vision by making IT compute accessible and affordable to all businesses.”