e magazine, april 2017

1 www.varindia.com April 2017

VOLUME XVIII ISSUE 08 APRIL 2017 PRICE Rs. 50

McAfee now a standalone company Ricoh launches two models of Color MFP

Digitisation and Role of IoT for Next Generation Enterprise

Thursday, 25th May 2017, New Delhi

2 April 2017 www.varindia.com

Huawei SD-DC² Distributed Cloud Data Center Solution meets dynamic data demands

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Flipkart acquires eBay India Tencent, eBay and Microsoft have

made investments aggregating to $1.4 billion in Flipkart to acquire eBay India. The latest funding round from the three global technology giants, at a post-transaction valuation of $11.6 billion, adds to an existing group of marquee investors that include Tiger Global Management, Naspers Group, Accel Partners and DST Global.

“We are delighted that Tencent, eBay and Microsoft — all innovation

powerhouses — have chosen to partner with us on their India journey. We have chosen these partners based on their long histories of pioneering industries, and the unique expertise and insights each of them bring to Flipkart,” Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, founders of Flipkart.

The investment by eBay is accompanied by a strategic commercial agreement with Flipkart.

Keysight to acquire Ixia for $1.6 BillionKeysight Technologies has decided

to buy U.S. data technology company Ixia for about $1.6 billion in cash in a bid to increase its software and security portfolio. The deal comes as the increasing

volume of data traffic flowing t h r o u g h social media,

smartphones and cloud computing tests the resilience and integrity of networks, making Ixia's equipment and applications more popular with its clients and coveted by its peers.

Ixia's customers include Cisco Systems Inc., Santa Rosa, California-based Keysight spun off from life sciences manufacturer Agilent Technologies in 2014. Ixia would be its largest acquisition since it bought Britain's Anite Plc.

IBM partners with Red Hat Infosys wins Cloud Elite Status in OPN

SUBSCRIPTION COPY NOT FOR SALEVOLUME XVIII ISSUE 08 APRIL 2017 PRICE Rs. 50

40pgGST – A big game-changer for the economy

CSR Summit & Awards 2017

Thursday, 25th May 2017, New Delhi

Topic: CSR @ Inclusive Development


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India’s internet economy is expected to double by 2020

…….. but information security is at risk

HELLO INDIA

Innovation is what leads to sustainability, and sustainable growth in the current entrepreneurship ecosystem will enable India to chart its own success story. In the present scenario, India is the second-highest country

in terms of Mobile Internet users with ~391 million users. This is expected to grow rapidly to ~650 million Mobile Internet users by 2020. At the same time, data consumption by 2020 could potentially increase 10–14 times, resulting in a clear roadmap for $250-billion Digital Volcano by 2020.

E-commerce and financial services are projected to lead this growth. Resultantly, digital economy will have a much broader influence beyond the direct economic impact. Digital adoption has started delivering several citizen-centric social benefits like enhancing ease of doing business, improving access to services and products and transforming governance. As the new digital paradigm emerges, adapting to change will become critical, but at the same time dynamic changes in the technology landscape, led by digitization, are creating opportunities for cybercriminals.

It is an absolute fact that digitization is happening everywhere, virtually to every business in every industry. When we talk about the security aspect, we always say it is not a matter of ‘if ’, rather ‘when’ you will be hacked. Well… when it comes to Digital, it too is not a matter of it will happen. Cybersecurity threats have become more complex, targeted and persistent, modern cyber defences require proactive security operations run by highly trained staff with the experience and expertise to detect and disrupt sophisticated threats.

In the result, digitization brings new risks for cyber-attacks. Cybersecurity in the Digital Economy is the bridge that connects Digital Innovation to business growth enablement. This opens a new door for cybersecurity experts that has grown three times faster than any other IT job role, and training a cybersecurity workforce is a priority for many organizations. This has created a situation of constant risk for organizations not seen at any point in our lifetime. As we increase our connectivity and create new services, we dramatically expand the attack surface. The question is over recorded 50,300 cybersecurity incidents like phishing, website intrusions and defacements, virus and DDOS attacks which were observed in the country during 2016. Lack of strong cybersecurity strategy can impact organization’s innovation and growth because it hinders development of digital offerings and business models.

Lastly, security is in top of mind for the enterprises today, and increasingly, at their board level. Cybersecurity in the Digital Economy is the bridge that connects Digital Innovation to Business growth enablement and security for the Digital Economy must take a top-down strategic approach, heavily influenced at the board level and driven by the C-suite.


Website: www.varindia.com

CONTENTSPublisher: Deepak Kumar SahuEditor: S Mohini RatnaExecutive Editor: Dr. Vijay Anand Copy Editor: C. M. Dutta Consulting Editor: Pravin PrashantDeputy Editor: Samrita Baruah Sub - Editor: Aparna MullickArt Director: Rakesh Kumar Network Administrator: Ashok Kumar SinghManager-IT: Subhash MohantaManager-SEO: Bidyadhar Behera

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VAR CORPORATE

28| Cisco India: Will Five Pronged Cybersecurity Strategy Work?

53| Lenovo partners Govt. of Maharashtra for Village Social Transformation Mission

TECHNOMANIA

38| Israel ready to be the Cyber Security partner to India

TAIWAN EXCELLENCE

26| Asus – the quest for excellence and innovation continues

COVER STORY

40| GST – A big game-changer for the economy

LEAD STORY

30| Security going beyond traditional parameters

VAR SPECIAL

24| Digital Payment: Making BHIM a Mass Movement

FACE TO FACE

27| F5 intends to address bottlenecks in an app-centric world

39| Canon keen to promote photo culture in India

46| GST to help government run a legitimate economy

REGULARS

Round About 10

Hot Bytes 12, 14

On the Ramp 16, 18

Voice N Data 20

Channel Buzz 22

Movers & Shakers 54

Product of the month 25 | 45

51| Konnect Insights helps build brand image in digital media

VAR MOBILITY

48| Samsung ties up with Amazon India over C7 Pro

49| 4G connections to reach 41% by 2020

VAR SECURITY

52| Network Access Control in Mobility Era


ROUND ABOUT

Data Mining & Analytics – Do They Rewrite the IT Landscape?

There are two phraseologies which you may be hearing more frequently these days in meetings and seminars directly or remotely

connected with information technology. Why I said more often because in earlier times, these jargons were seldom used.

Let me explain the context in which I hear such jargons. In a serious discussion on healthcare, I heard from a college professor from an Ivy League University in the U.S. talk how data mining and analytics are used to find the trend of diseases in certain countries specific to that area. The professor elaborated that in a country like Finland, where type 1 diabetes is very common, particularly among the juveniles. There was a concerted effort to data mine to find out the possible reasons. One conclusive correlation between juvenile diabetes and lack of vitamin D, which is grossly insufficient in a cold country like Finland, was established.

Hardly is there any segment revolutionized by technology as healthcare is. It may be in a relative sense since the perception is that healthcare is something that revolves around doctors, hospitals, diagnostics and the patients’ interfaces with them individually or collectively. That concept has gone for a toss. For instance, medical experts are of the view that for cases that can be treated at the primary healthcare centres need not have to be through the hospital and the patient need not have to meet the doctors in person. The interface or consultations with the doctor and patient can take place in the virtual medium, wherein the doctors can attend to patients through the virtual medium with the help of a trained nurse, even if the doctors sit hundreds of miles away. Technology platforms now available can make healthcare both affordable and accessible. Moreover, the patients need not have to travel huge distances to get the consultations done. Yes, technology has made steady strides.

Data analytics is finding acceptability in every sphere of life, even in criminology. Research is being done to find out the genes that make people more prone to criminal activity. If the exact reasons are found out, it may become possible for the clinicians and genetic engineers to reverse such trends. Does it mean that the world is moving towards a state that can nip the faulty genes in the bud itself and that way moving towards an orderly society free from all vices. It may sound Utopian now. But who knows it may be a possibility in the near future. Through data mining, experts are of the view that the DNA that causes ageing can be found out. Should it mean youthfulness and agility become disengaged with the process of ageing?

Not many know that data mining and analytics in the genome are emerging as frontier businesses for many IT firms. There are some factors that helped such enterprises to come up in India. Foremost is the US Supreme Court decision which was pronounced in 2013 in the case of Myriad Genetics Inc., wherein the court has maintained that natural human genes cannot be patented since it is a product of nature. It said that genome is a basic tool of scientific and technological work and it is beyond the domain of patent protection. But the court also maintained that synthetic genetic material, such as clones, can be patented, since billions of dollars are involved in the research and it should be recouped. Also, the process through which the genome has been discovered can be patented as a process patent.

There are many genome research outfits coming up in India also, while in countries like the U.S. and the U.K. they occupy an important position in the corporate ladder. Some of them have listed in the stock exchange in anticipation of huge surge in their fortunes once they struck with some landmark discoveries. More than commercial connotations, the research findings of these companies will unravel several mysteries about genetics, causes for mutation and even prevention of such mutations, saving the humanity from the double whammy of pain and financial loses.

There is scope for using data analytics in fields like economics, sociology, and law. For instance, the central bank of a country can easily evolve a solution to an economic ill by looking at the trends, as obtained earlier. With the help of huge data stored, the trends of the inflation can be found over the years and what measures that helped in bringing down the prices. The policy-makers also can scan through the data stored for

other countries. It can also instruct the central banks to pursue differing monetary policies suitable to each situation. In the fiscal administration, a country can gauge the impact of a fiscal levy before it is being imposed by going through data collated for other countries. What I am trying to drive home is that it is possible to find trends that can be extrapolated to arrive at specific conclusions.

Have we given enough focus to data mining and analytics in our overhaul of IT policy? I suspect not. There are reasons to believe. Just to imagine that this is an area where start-ups can proliferate is a simplistic inference. Data mining and analytics fall under the purview of R&D. It is a capital-intensive venture, where huge investments are required. A start-up entrepreneur seldom finds such resources. There should be government funding and support for such efforts. Also, there should be greater government, industry and academia tie-ups to foster such costly research. There can be a high financial risk involved. Even after years of research, breakthrough results may elude. There can be many alternative proposals that can be thought of in this regard, such as joint research where there can be an investor from outside for meeting the initial cost with an understanding that the outcome can be jointly patented. The other alternative is selling the R&D efforts to an industry, after it has reached a certain degree of maturity and certainty.

While we move towards a system that connects with digital economy, from birth to death, what system we have to protect the data and prevent others peeping into our private life. This is a question, which everyone is asking. In India, we have heard about Aadhaar data being compromised by the vested interests. There are sporadic complaints being raised by the politicians and others about the electronic voting equipment being compromised or which can be tampered with human interventions, so much so that the Supreme Court of India has made it mandatory to have a parallel system of digital voting and the conventional method of voting, wherein the ballot paper generated by the machine has to be dropped in the ballot box. In the U.S., we hear about how Russians had influenced the recent election and that scandal is refusing to die down. How do we face this challenge? The way out is embellishing the cybersecurity systems, wherein there should be foolproof devices that can prevent hacking or manipulation. Happily, this is also a multibillon industry, where India can have its legitimate pie. n


HOT BYTES

MSDE partners with BYST to boost skill-based entrepreneurship

Tableau presents New Subscription Pricing

Silicon Power aims at building a strong brand in Indian market

Intel announces initiatives to accelerate AI in the country

D-Link to amplify SI engagement through its partner portal

McAfee now a standalone company

Tableau has a n n o u n c e d

subscription pricing for all of its products, including Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server and Tableau Online. The pricing model reduces the initial expense to deploy best-in-class business intelligence, enabling customers to access the full value of Tableau’s award-winning platform and frequent product updates without purchasing a perpetual software licence. With Tableau’s subscription offerings, organizations of all sizes have the predictability and flexibility

SP/ Silicon Power has welcomed Ajay

Kogta to its international sales team. With its latest hire, the Taiwan-based company aims at building sustainable sales and service operations in India and is excited to have Kogta on board. As part of its long-term commitment towards the Indian market, Silicon Power has plans to set up two RMA centers in India – the first one in Bangalore, followed by Delhi.

“For our mission to be successful, it is crucial that we can offer an in-country solution for RMA.

The Ministry of Skill Development

and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has signed an

MoU with Bhartiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST). The MoU will help nurture the underprivileged residing in the rural hinterlands, and assist them to become entrepreneurs through effective mentorship.

The collaboration

seeks to provide mentor development services to the officials suggested by the ministry for promoting

and setting up micro and rural businesses. At BYST, the mentors share the experience in an advisory capacity and suggest potential areas of market. Mentoring in a way opens wider vistas to the budding businessman.

they need to budget and plan deployments.

“Many customers have told us they prefer to purchase software through a subscription model to more easily access the products they want, reduce upfront expenses and increase flexibility,” said Adam Selipsky, President & CEO, Tableau. “We have always been driven by the success of our customers, and with subscription pricing we’ll be even more aligned with our customer’s needs and further committed to earning their business every year.”

We are very excited about the Government’s ‘Make-in-India’ initiative and would like to be a part of it. Starting from USB flash drives and power banks, we will gradually increase our local manufacturing of other products,” explains Kogta. “By the end of 2018, SP intends to have a local Indian team of 8–10 head counts,” added Kogta.

Intel India has hosted its first AI Day

where the government, the industry, and the academia congregated to discuss the potential of accelerating the AI revolution in the country. The company deep dived into its global AI strategy, and also highlighted how it is working with the ecosystem in India to improve solution performances on Intel’s AI platforms.

Intel India has announced a comprehensive developer community initiative – the AI Developer Education

Program, targeted at educating 15,000 scientists, developers, analysts, and engineers on key AI technologies, including Deep Learning and Machine Learning. Through 60 programs

across the year, ranging from w o r k s h o p s , roadshows, user group and senior t e c h n o l o g y l e a d e r

roundtables, the initiative aims at empowering this community with the know-how for adoption of AI via technical sessions involving the use of ready-to-deploy platforms and tools for solution development.

McAfee has announced that

it has begun operating as a standalone company. As a standalone business, it will expand upon its leading security solutions platform to better enable customers to effectively identify and orchestrate responses to cyber-threats.

The launch of McAfee marks the closing of the previously announced investment by TPG and Intel Corporation (INTC) to establish a pure-play cybersecurity company with access to significant capital,

D-Link has continued to

enhance its focus on enterprise business segment for the year 2017 with renewed business strategy. D-Link plans to amplify its engagement with System Integrators (SI) through D-Link partner portal.

The core objective of D-Link partner portal is to empower System Integrators on the latest advancements in networking domain via Webinars & training

programs. The company has also introduced an exclusive D-Link Partner Program for its registered users on the website. In addition to partner program, D-Link will be announcing schemes/ offers for its system integrators at regular interval along with a host of other benefits. D-Link at present has 3000 plus registered System Integrators on its partner portal and is looking at strengthening its user base this year.

operational and technology resources. With the help of its new investment partners, McAfee will apply greater market focus, build its platform and target new financial, operational and technology investments to better address the cybersecurity market’s significant global growth opportunity. Intel Senior Vice- President and General Manager Chris Young will lead the new McAfee as Chief Executive Officer. TPG Partner Bryan Taylor has been named Chairman of the Board.

Snapdeal ties up with AP Government Snapdeal has entered

into partnership with University of California, Berkeley for the Andhra Pradesh Government’s Smart Village Project. With the objective of discovering economical and infrastructural barriers faced by artisans in these villages, UC Berkeley and Snapdeal are aiming to create viable solutions through digitization and new-age services.

Vishal Chadha, SVP, Business Team, said, “We are proud to partner with the Government of Andhra Pradesh and UC Berkeley, enabling digital access and generating a world of commercial opportunities for small artisans. Working with a vibrant base of 3 lakh sellers of various sizes, we continue to drive inclusive growth and in-sync development."

Pune Police adopts WorkApps Chat Pune Police has

become the first government body to join the wave of organizations moving to Dedicated and Secure Chat Applications for better, faster and secure communication between internal teams. With mobile devices becoming the primary source of communication, Public Chat Applications pose a threat for government bodies as they are neither in control of the government, nor is their data hosted in India.

Rashmi Shulka, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Pune, said, “Speed of information and its security are emerging as the key factors of efficient policing. Information needs to be communicated on a real-time basis and to the right officers for prompt action."


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HOT BYTES

Google and MEITY to empower citizens

Infosys wins Cloud Elite Status in OPN

VMware works towards enabling emerging businesses in India

A2B Internet acquires Juniper Networks' vMX Virtual Routers

IBM partners with Red Hat

CA Technologies buys Veracode for $614 million

Google India and the Ministry

of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) have announced a set of initiatives aimed at empowering citizens and creating abundant opportunities for all. Some key areas outlined as part of this initiative include enabling a safe and secure digital payments experience, imparting digital skills for artisans and Android skills training for students and developers. The announcements were made in New Delhi by Aruna Sundarajan, MEITY

Juniper Networks and A2B Internet

have announced that A2B Internet has selected Juniper Networks vMX Virtual Routers as the first Virtual Network Function (VNF) for its next-generation network platform. This architecture will enable A2B Internet to deliver new agile and automated services for its customers. A2B Internet also improved monitoring and management capabilities by deploying vMX.

A2B Internet provides connectivity solutions to

Secretary, and Rajan Anandan, VP, SEA and India, Google.

Aruna Sundarajan, Secretary, MEITY, said, “MEITY intends to give impetus to the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s recent call for a 'New India'. Collaboration with Google will be hugely beneficial in harnessing the capabilities for the ‘India growth’ story.”

Infosys has achieved Cloud Elite status in

the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN). With this designation, Infosys is well positioned to help customers achieve cloud transformation, and provide sophisticated capabilities and next-generation services on Oracle Cloud. With strategic specialization and training programs, innovative joint solutions, and a clearly defined solutions roadmap, Infosys’ Cloud Elite status will help clients derive better business value.

With multiple solutions on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace, dedicated

centers of excellence (COE), industry-specific solutions, co-development initiatives, and RapidStart Methodology that delivered as much as 30-per cent reduction in effort and cost, Infosys has a very strong value proposition to give clients an unparalleled competitive advantage. This new dimension of the partnership gives an added impetus to the commitment and engagement for next-generation services on Oracle Cloud and provides greater value to our clients through higher specialization and innovative co-developed solutions.

VMware is expanding its reach to emerging businesses in cities in India. With the expansion rollout, VMware will also focus on the cities like Jaipur, Vizag, Nagpur, Goa, Bhubaneswar,

Guwahati, Cochin, Coimbatore, Ludhiana and Chandigarh to enable emerging businesses to overcome IT challenges. With businesses facing major challenges of accessing IT resources and applications while managing complex work environments, VMware’s

tailor-made solutions will empower them to protect their IT infrastructure as they evolve to support their business initiatives.

“At VMware, we work towards enabling emerging businesses by empowering

them to optimize their businesses through their limited resources and enabling them to evolve the infrastructure from within,” said Sundar Balasubramanian, senior director, General Business (Commercial Sales & Partners), VMware on the expansion plans.

internet service providers, web, cloud, hosting and enterprise companies. The previous solution was no longer able to meet the growing scale of A2B Internet's data connections. Convergence time was also critical for the provider. When a link fails or changes, each router must rapidly recompute and update its routing tables. Juniper Networks vMX was selected for its fast convergence times and its rich set of routing features and automation capabilities.

IBM and Red Hat have announced

a strategic collaboration designed to help enterprises benefit from the OpenStack platform’s speed and economics while more easily extending their existing Red Hat virtualized and cloud workloads to the IBM Private Cloud.

IBM has become a Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider, giving clients greater confidence that they can use Red Hat

OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Ceph Storage on IBM Private Cloud when the offering launches for general availability at the end of March 2017. Red Hat Cloud Access will be available for IBM Cloud by the end of Q2 2017, allowing Red Hat customers to move eligible, unused Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions from their data center to a public, virtualized cloud environment in IBM Cloud Data Centers worldwide.

CA Technologies has announced

that it has completed the acquisition of Veracode. The acquisition establishes CA Technologies as a leader in the Secure DevOps market, bridges its Security business with its broad DevOps portfolio and adds to its growing SaaS business.

With the completion of the transaction, Bob Brennan, former Chief Executive Officer, is now general manager of the

Veracode business in the company’s product development organization reporting to Ayman Sayed, CA President and Chief Product Officer.

Under the terms of the agreement, the transaction is valued at approximately $614 million in cash.

HCL signs MoU with Government of APShri Chandrababu

Naidu, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and Shiv Nadar, Founder & Chairman, HCL & Shiv Nadar Foundation, signed an MoU to open a state-of-the-art Global IT Development and Training Centre at Vijayawada. The ceremony was attended by senior government officials and the leadership team of HCL.

HCL aims to hire, employ and train 5,000 local residents in the region with a plan to leverage a gender equal workforce. The selected candidates will undergo a rigorous training program by industry experts on skills required for working for global customers of HCL. The centre will also work on developing innovative high-end technologies.

Spice Digital to become a GST Suvidha ProviderSpice Digital has

become one of the GST Suvidha Providers (GSPs) and soon to provide comprehensive tax-related services to taxpayers. After signing the agreement, Spice Digital will now offer seamless integration to ASPs, Corporates, MSME, TRPs with the GSTN network to enable the businesses to be compliant with the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

GSTN has selected Spice Digital to be the GSP. As the GST constitutional amendment having been promulgated by the Government of India, the much- awaited GST Bill will play a very important and strategic role. Being able to provide impeccable fintech services, SDL has got the expertise to manage companies which pay big revenue taxes.

23 www.varindia.com March 2017


ON THE RAMP

Xerox unveils Versant 3100 and Versant 180 Presses

Trend Micro protects against Cerber threats

Twitter Lite launched in India along with Vodafone

Honeywell unveils SMX Solution for secure use of USB Devices

BPE launches GTC Series Level UPS power supply system

Epson unveils four models of InkTank Printers

Xerox India has launched Xerox

Versant 180, Versant 180 Performance Package and Versant 3100 presses at the Print Miracle 2017. The launched mid-production colour presses consist of a unique combination of higher image quality, greater media latitude and higher duty cycles for more productivity and performances.

Balaji Rajagopalan, Executive Director, Technology, Channels & International Distributor Operations, Xerox India, said, “The Xerox

Trend Micro through its multi-layered

approach, will help protect against the new variants of Cerber threats, which are causing disruption across the gateway, endpoints, networks, and servers of enterprises. The Cerber family of ransomware has adopted a new technique to make itself harder to detect, using a new loader that is designed to evade detection by machine learning solutions.

"Users should avoid relying on any single approach to security. We, at Trend Micro, provide

Twitter has launched its global Twitter

Lite product from India, reinforcing its commitment to the country as a strategic mobile and social media market worldwide. Twitter Lite is a mobile web experience accessible to anyone with a smartphone or tablet with a browser, optimized for speed with up to 30% faster launch times, reduces data usage up to 70% with data saver mode turned on, and takes up less than 1MB on mobile devices. Of course, Twitter Lite still provides the key features of Twitter as well

Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS)

has announced a new solution for industrial sites as they balance productivity and cyber security demands. Honeywell’s Secure Media Exchange (SMX) protects facilities against current and emerging USB-borne threats, without the need for complex procedures or restrictions that impact operations or industrial personnel.

Honeywell’s SMX provides hassle-free, multi-layered protection for managing USB security, letting users simply plug

Versant family has already established a merit in productivity, automation and media flexibility. It has seen a great response in the market and we are looking forward to sustaining the momentum for this year as well. The newly-launched presses will achieve a new standard of image quality by delivering four times more pixels than other presses.”

endpoint security solutions like Trend Micro Smart Protection Suites, and Worry-Free Business Security to protect users and businesses from the threats by detecting malicious files, spammed messages and to block all related malicious URLs. Trend Micro OfficeScan with XGen endpoint security infuses high-fidelity machine learning with other detection technologies and global threat intelligence,” said Nilesh Jain, Country Manager (India and SAARC), Trend Micro.

as app-like performance such as a wide range of push notifications and offline support.

Maya Hari, Managing Director, Twitter Asia-Pacific, said, “India today is already one of Twitter’s largest and fastest-growing audience markets worldwide and we’ve seen significant usage around key moments in the Indian society such as the recent State Elections, Union Budget, and the Jio Film Fare Awards."

in and check devices for approved use in the facility. Contractors “check-in” their USB drive by plugging it into an SMX Intelligence Gateway. The ruggedized industrial device analyzes files using a variety of techniques included with Honeywell’s Advanced Threat Intelligence Exchange (ATIX).

BPE has launched GT challenger

series LEVEL UPS. It is a modular, three-phase, double conversion uninterruptible power supply system which provides operating efficiencies as high as 96.5 percent even at half load.

The GTC series LEVEL UPS covers power ranges from 120 kVA to 800 kVA.

"We are always looking for ways to make our customers' experience easy and seamless. Our product portfolio is proven

Epson has launched four new models

of InkTank printers with advanced features. The new multifunction L361, L380, L385 and L485 printers will complement Epson’s current range of highly successful InkTank printers to provide added value for customers.

The new models offer ultra-high page yields of 7,500 pages in color or 4,500 pages in black with each set of inks, delivering the lowest cost per print of 7 Paise for black and

to be reliable, efficient, and scalable. Our latest addition, GTC series LEVEL UPS is ideal for all sizes of industrial power requirements looking to achieve lower costs and savings on operational ongoing with greater flexibility and shorter deployment schedules," said SK Mahapatra, AVP Technical, BPE.

18 Paise for color in the market. The L380, L385 and L485 InkTank printers bring superior performance and reliable quality, at improved printing speeds of 10 ipm for black and white, and 5.0 ipm in color. All the new printers offer a warranty of one year or 30,000 prints. The L380 printer provides more value with an additional two black bottles on top of the provided set of bottles.

Ixia extends delivery of visibility to Public CloudIxia has announced

that it has further extended the reach delivered by the CloudLens Platform to the public cloud. CloudLens Public provides Visibility-as-a-Service (VaaS) and is the first to be implemented as a pure Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution. It is designed from the ground up to retain the benefits of the cloud – elastic scale, flexibility, and agility. CloudLens Public provides intelligent and automated visibility as a service that scales with public cloud infrastructures.

Access to application and network data in cloud environments is critical for security and monitoring tools to ensure the reliability, security, and performance of mission-critical applications.

DIGISOL unveils DG-FS1005PF-20 SwitchDIGISOL has

launched its 4-port Fast Ethernet PoE unmanaged switch with one single mode fiber port designed to enhance network performance in a compact form factor. The switch has a sturdy and compact desktop design. Thus, the DG-FS1005PF-20 is an ideal solution for small Ethernet workgroups and applications requiring PoE along with long- distance fiber Connectivity.

The DG-FS1005PF-20 switch offers 4x10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet ports with Power over Ethernet support. These PoE ports are IEEE 802.3af compliant and can supply up to 15.4 watt per port. The existing Ethernet cables can be used to power up IEEE802.3af compliant network devices. This eliminates the need of an external power source.


ON THE RAMP

Ricoh launches two models of Color MFP

Western Digital presents Purple 10TB HDD

F-Secure launches Cloud Protection on Salesforce AppExchange

Kingston launches DC400 SSD

Reliance Group's Unlimit signs partnership with Cumulocity

ALE launches Hybrid Communication Blueprint

Ricoh has launched two models of

color MFP – MP C2004SP and MP C2504SP. Powered by Workstyle I n n o v a t i o n Technology, the ingenious feature set of the MFPs redefines the way users print and share information in modern work environment. A sound-reducing design, which incorporates an an t i - v i b r a t i on system and noise-absorbing materials, makes for quieter

Western Digital has announced

the WD Purple10TB HDD hard drive line for surveillance applications. According the IHS Markit, anticipated growth of 4K-compliant and high-resolution network cameras over the next few years is driving higher demand for surveillance-class storage to support systems featuring these technologies. The WD Purple 10TB HDD is optimized for 24x7 video surveillance systems and up to 64 high-definition (HD) cameras in home and small business security

operation.Enterprises can

customize their work through iconic automated

shortcuts, user-specific security controls and fingertip access to critical i n f o r m a t i o n that help drive productivity. This is combined with banner printing capabilities for h i g h - q u a l i t y output and a new Intel processor to

help productivity and speed up jobs.

environments.“Advanced imaging

technology advancements are expanding the value that video surveillance provides for applications ranging from retail and public safety monitoring to smart-city infrastructure, all of which are driving new storage needs,” said Khalid Wani, MD for India Sales, Western Digital Corporation.

F-Secure has launched Cloud

Protection on the Salesforce AppExchange, protecting organizations against malicious content shared in the cloud. F-Secure Cloud Protection checks links and files for malicious content as they are shared through Salesforce, ensuring the cloud stays a safe place for companies and for users. The solution combines award-winning Best Protection with easy no-middleware installation.

"With F-Secure Cloud Protection, we enable a holistic approach to security in company cloud environments,” said Mikko Peltola, Vice-President of

Business Development, F-Secure. “Sharing content is a vital part of doing business, and with our solution, it remains a strong enabler to smooth business operations."

Kingston has announced Data

Center 400 (DC400) SSD, the latest solid-state drive to its range of enterprise solutions. DC400 SSD is an entry-level enterprise drive designed for server use in data centers, especially for customers who deploy a rip-and-replace strategy. It is ideal for read-intensive applications such as boot, web servers and lower data rate operational databases and analytics, especially in data center mixed workload environments where endurance and reliability are important.

DC400 SSD offers superior quality of service for data center customers whose workload environment calls for sustained IOPS and consistent low latency. A Standard and user-adjustable over-provisioning improves random IOPS performance and endurance while enterprise firmware improves latency.

Reliance Group’s U n l i m i t h a s

signed partnership with Cumulocity, the leading IoT software provider worldwide.

The partnership will roll out a suite of new products and services on a new platform, titled ‘Enablement’. Enablement will allow businesses to connect any device over any network, and manage and store asset data, by controlling them in real-time by monitoring device availability and administer and rectify device faults.

The versatility of

Enablement allows it to be tailored specifically for specialized businesses and provides enterprises with the ability to compose their own IoT app in minutes, with the “smart rules” wizard used to instantly spot operationally critical states.

The newly launched product line will showcase off-the-shelf applications for key verticals such as industrial automation, healthcare, financial services and asset tracking and/or tailored to suit the unique demands of the Indian market.

Al c a t e l - L u c e n t Enterprise (ALE)

is introducing its hybrid communications blueprint to help businesses adopt Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS). Rainbow Connected Platform is an overlay service that connects ALE and third-party communications platforms in a hybrid approach, enabling businesses to protect and leverage existing systems while accessing new unified communication services.

ALE is also introducing OTEC-S cloud-based offer

aimed at providing small and mid-sized companies with benefits of Telephony-as-a-Service coupled with Rainbow’s UCaaS capabilities. This expansion of the Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Enterprise Cloud (OTEC) offer further extends the ALE strategy to deliver connected platforms by enabling enterprises of any size to take advantage of new subscription-based models. Large enterprises have benefited from the OTEC multi-instance architecture since its introduction three years ago.

ADATA launches External SSDADATA Technology

has launched SD600 external SSD, which uses high-quality 3D TLC NAND to offer 256GB and 512GB variants. The drive reaches speeds of 440MB/s read and 430MB/s write. It weighs a mere 90g for convenient portability, and works driver-free with Windows PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Android. The SD600 is available in all-black and red-black colour schemes.

True to its athletic look, the SD600 delivers 440MB/s read and 430MB/s write. Even in the best of circumstances, internal and external mechanical hard drives cannot hope to come close to that. Approximately four times faster than spin drives, the SD600 shortens load times and results in smoo the r -pe r fo r m ing games and applications whenever quick asset streaming is essential.

Dell launches Entry-level Thin Client Dell has introduced

its thin client that offers good performance and manageability for task and basic productivity users. Compatible with Citrix, Microsoft and VMware virtual workspace environments, the Wyse 3040 thin client provides a cost-effective endpoint solution that is highly secure, yet easy to deploy and manage. It is the industry entry-level Intel x86-based quad-core thin client delivering robust connectivity options and a choice of Wyse ThinOS or ThinLinux operating systems.

The Wyse 3040 thin client is an affordable, efficient and easy to manage endpoint solution that allows IT managers to keep costs low while supporting basic productivity and light multitasking.


LEADING IT SOLUTIONS PROVIDER IN INDIA


VOICE-N-DATA

Qualcomm to encash on India's 4G feature phone market

Jio launches All Unlimited Plan for Jio Prime Members

RailYatri data shows fluctuating mobile connectivity on long

Ericsson and IIT Delhi to launch “5G for India” program

Bharti Airtel to acquire Tikona’ 4G business

Nokia's 100G deployment supports Jio's pan-India 4G network

Qualcomm India has launched

Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform to encash on 4G feature phone market designed to bring 4G LTE connectivity and 4G services to entry level 4G feature phones.

The Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform includes the Qualcomm 205 SoC,

“India and the South East Asia regions present growth opportunities in the telecom space with 4G adoption rising and continued adoption of feature phones. The launch of Qualcomm 205 Mobile

Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio)

has announced that the Jio Summer Surprise has been fully withdrawn, following the advice of the Telecom Regulatory authority of India (TRAI).

Jio has f u r t h e r a n n o u n c e d that ALL UNLIMITED plans with special benefits, exclusively for its Jio Prime members is aimed at encouraging Jio subscribers to live the Digital Life without restrictions – Jio Dhan

train routesOn a long train

journey, the mobile phone invariably becomes the biggest entertainment and knowledge source for passengers. The new version that was recently launched displays the mobile network coverage for any train. So, travellers can check and compare the mobile connectivity across different routes. To check the network coverage, just open the timetable of any train on the RailYatri app and a link on the bottom

Ericsson and the Indian Institute

of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly roll out a “5G for India” program. Ericsson will set up a Center of Excellence with a 5G test bed and incubation center at IIT Delhi and use this facility to drive the development of the country’s 5G ecosystem. This program has been conceptualized to fast-track realization of Digital

Platform presents a unique opportunity for OEMs, operators and content providers to extend superior experiences to users by enabling data on feature phones,” said Jim Cathey, senior vice president and president, Asia Pacific and India, Qualcomm Technologies.

Dhana Dhan! The plans start with the Rs.309 ALL UNLIMITED PLAN, which provides Unlimited SMS, calling and data (1GB

per day at 4G speed) for 3 months on

first recharge.T h e

c o m p a n y has also a n n o u n c e d

the Rs.509 ALL U N L I M I T E D

PLAN for daily high data users offering Unlimited SMS, calling and data (2GB per day at 4G speed) for 3 months on first recharge.

of the screen will map the route along with the coverage details.

“Internet connectivity along the rail routes has, thus, become important to ensure a pleasant experience for today's travellers. With the Network Coverage feature, passengers now know what to expect along their train route. Armed with this information, they can make their calls or take decisions like downloading a movie or book,” comments Manish Rathi, CEO & Co-Founder, RailYatri.in.

India initiatives and aid application development for Indian start-ups and industries.

The first series of tests under this program are due to begin in the second half of 2017 and will place India on par with other developed countries in terms of 5G network and application deployment. Globally, limited deployment and 5G trials are expected to start by mid-2018 while commercial availability is slated for 2020.

Bharti Airtel has entered into a

definitive agreement with Tikona Digital Networks to acquire Tikona’s 4G

Business including the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum and 350 sites, in five telecom circles.

Tikona currently has 20 MHz spectrum in the 2,300 MHz band in Gujarat,

UP (East), UP (West), Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh circles. Airtel plans to roll-out high speed 4G services on the newly

acquired spectrum in the five circles immediately.

The acquisition of Tikona's 4G business in Gujarat, UP

(East), UP (West) and Himachal Pradesh will be undertaken by Airtel, while in Rajasthan circle, it will be accomplished through Airtel’s subsidiary Bharti Hexacom.

Nokia has provided 100G solutions

for core and metro solution for Reliance Jio Infocomm's pan-India 4G LTE network

to handle the massive traffic growth fuelled by the operator's initiative to build broadband connectivity for all of India.

Spanning 90,000 km, Reliance Jio is one of the biggest 100G deployments in the world. The Nokia transport network allows Jio to offer innovative, high-capacity services to

underserved regions in India as well as a nationwide long-distance service. Jio has clocked unprecedented subscriber growth as a result

of its plan to bring India into the top ten broadband countries in the world. Jio deployed Nokia's high-capacity transport network to offer high-bandwidth services such as video streaming, multimedia content distribution and cloud and business services to its rapidly increasing subscriber base.

Lava adopts Spreadtrum LTE SoC platformSp r e a d t r u m

Communicat ions has announced that its LTE SoC platform, SC9820 has been adopted by Lava for its Connect M1 phone.

Lava Connect M1 is powered by Spreadtrum’s 28nm 1.2GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 LTE platform SC9820, supporting VoLTE and dual-SIM function. It features a 512MB RAM/4GB ROM storage, a MicroSD slot up to 32GB and comes pre-installed with Facebook Lite, providing feature phone users a perfect smart experience.

Spreadtrum SC9820 integrates 1.2GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, ARM Mali-400 MP1 GPU for 3D graphics acceleration and supports TDD-LTE, FDD-LTE, GSM modes and GPRS connectivity.

RCOM gets SEBI approval for proposed demerger of wireless businessRe l i a n c e

Communications (RCOM) has received approval of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), BSE Limited (BSE) and National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) for the proposed Scheme of Arrangement for demerger of the wireless division of the company into Aircel Limited and Dishnet Wireless Limited (the Scheme).

Pursuant to the same, Reliance Communications has filed an application with National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai Bench, for approval of the said Scheme. The proposed transaction is subject to other necessary approvals.


VAR SPECIAL

Digital Payment: Making BHIM a Mass Movement

Initially, the focus was on promoting digital payment but presently the stress is on making it a mass movement through Cash Back and Referral

Bonus schemes and declaring 75 townships going less-cash

To make digital payment a mass movement, Prime Minister Narendra

Modi launched the BHIM Aadhaar platform for merchants, Cash Back and Referral bonus schemes for BHIM and declared about 75 townships going less-cash on the occasion of the 126th birth anniversary of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar in Nagpur.

The BHIM Aadhaar is the merchant interface of the BHIM app and it will pave the way for making digital payments by using the Aadhaar platform. Any Indian citizen can pay digitally using their biometric data (thumb imprint) on a merchants’ biometric-enabled device which could be a smartphone having a biometric reader. Any citizen without access to smartphones, internet, debit or credit cards will be able to transact digitally through the BHIM Aadhaar platform.

Already, 27 major banks are now on board with 7.15 lakh merchants so that they can start accepting payments using BHIM Aadhaar. One can expect more banks onboarding along with increase in merchant numbers as government has a strong push to make digital

payment a way of life in the days to come. Initially, the government's focus was on

promoting digital payments but now the focus is on creating awareness about digital payments to the grassroots level through BHIM Cash Back and Referral Bonus scheme. The scheme has an overall outlay of Rs.495 crore for a period of six months. Under the Referral Bonus scheme, both the existing user who uses BHIM and the new user who adopts BHIM would get a cash bonus credited directly to their account. Under the Cash Back scheme, the merchants will get a cash back on every transaction using BHIM. Both schemes are to be administered by the Ministry of IT & Electronics and would be implemented by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

Niti Aayog focussed on creating awareness about digital payments through Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana which have come to an end after a rigorous 100-day information, education and communication campaign. The Prime Minister felicitated the winners of the mega draw of the two

major incentive schemes to promote digital payments – Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Vyapaar Yojana. 100 days of Digi-Dhan Melas was led by NITI Aayog in 100 cities across India for enabling increased usage of digital payments. As per government numbers, at least 15,000 institutions have gone cashless across just these 100 rural and urban cities. With a turnout of over 15 lakh from cities, small towns and villages, the melas have enabled lakhs to open new bank accounts as well as create new Aadhaar cards.

Under the scheme, Rs.258 crore of prize money was won by 16 lakh winners, including customers and merchants belonging to different corners of the country and from varied walks of life. 20-year-old Shradha Mohan Mengshette, a second year student of Electrical Engineering from Latur district in Maharashtra, emerged as the winner of Rs.1 crore mega draw for consumers. The second prize of Rs.50 lakh, under the Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers was won by Hardik Kumar, a 29-year-old primary school teacher from Khambhat in Gujarat. The third prize


of Rs.25 lakh went to Bharat Singh from the Sherpur village in Uttarakhand.

The first prize of Rs.50 lakh, under the Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana category for merchants, was won by Anand Ananthapadmanabhan of GRT Jewellers in Tambaram, Tamil Nadu. The second prize of Rs.25 lakh was won by Ragini Rajendra Uttekar, owner of a small beauty parlour in Thane, Maharashtra. The third prize of Rs.12 lakh was won by 33-year-old Shaik Rafi who runs a wholesale clothing store in Ameerpet, Telangana.

BHIM app has already created a new record by registering 1.9 crore downloads in just four months since its launch in December 2016. Until November 2016, the volume of all digital transactions was 280,000 which amounted to Rs.101 crore in value terms. In just four months, by March this year, the volume of payments using various digital payment modes saw an increase of about 23 times amounting with 6,380,000 digital transactions for a value of Rs.2,425 crore.

Aadhaar-enabled payments have increased from 2.5 crore in November 2016 to over 5 crore in March 2017. Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions have also increased from 3.6 crore to 6.7 crore during the same period.

In order to achieve the target of 2,500 crore digital transactions during the current financial year, the government will also announce about 75 townships spread all over India as “less-cash townships”. A less-cash township is one where the deployment of payment acceptance infrastructure is complete, all the families in the township are covered under the training programmes. The townships selected for the launch have been subjected to independent third-party

Digital Payment Statistics • BHIMApphasregistered1.9croredownloadsinjustfourmonths

• Digital transactions volumehas increased by about 23 timeswith 6,380,000 digital

transactionsinMarch2017to280,000transactionsinNovember2016

• ThevalueofdigitaltransactionshasincreasedfromRs.101croreinNovember2016to

Rs.2,425croreinMarch2017

• Aadhaar-enabledpaymentshaveincreasedfrom2.5croreinNovember2016toover5

croreinMarch2017

• ImmediatePaymentService(IMPS)transactionshavealsoincreasedfrom3.6croreto

6.7croreduringthesameperiod

assessment by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and only those townships which have reported more than 80% of the total number of transactions in the township being done through digital modes of payments during the review period are included in this list. These townships are likely to generate over 1.5 lakh digital transactions every day, thereby leading to about 5.5 crore digital transactions in a year.

The BHIM Cash Back and Referral Bonus schemes and less-cash townships will definitely help the government to promote digital payments modes to the grassroots level to meet the target of 2,500 crore digital transactions during the current financial year from the present 101 crore transactions in the month of March 2017. n

Pravin Prashant [email protected]

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

ZyXEL SBG3500-NB00 The ZyXEL SBG3500-N series Wireless N Fiber WAN Small Business

Gateway is the "multi-WAN gateway" that provides high-speed Internet access for business users. Featuring not only VDSL2/ADSL2+ functionality but also one GbE WAN with Small Form Pluggable (SFP) interface, this device offers flexible multiple-WAN connectivity to adopt various Internet interfaces. It also enhances network performance for small businesses to pursue the ultimate success. The ZyXEL SBG3500-N series provides multiple WAN interfaces, including DSL and Gigabit Ethernet, for load balancing and WAN backup. Service providers can flexibly offer WAN services of the highest availability in one single box for small business owners to enjoy non-stop services. Powered by the load balancing and fail-over mechanisms among multiple WANs, it maximizes WAN stability for mission- critical Internet applications with benefits of the integrated bandwidth.The advanced VDSL2/ADSL2+ bonding and dual-personality Ethernet WAN functionalities enable service providers to increase bandwidth and extend coverage. With the available copper lines, service providers can take advantage of VDSL2/ADSL2+ bonding to not only provide higher speeds for the existing subscribers, but also improve the user experience for those who are far away from the cabinet with stable, sufficient bandwidth regardless of the distance. Besides, if fiber lines are preferred, the ZyXEL SBG3500-N series can use the Small Form Pluggable (SFP) interface to connect Fiber Ethernet for distances much longer than Gigabit networks, or simply connect to other Ethernet WAN devices without additional cost laying new fiber. Based on Access Control List (ACL) rules, Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI), Denial of Service (Dos) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) measures, the ZyXEL SBG3500-N Series provides the first-line defense against hackers, network intruders and other harmful threats. The configurable Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is another benefit that provides more flexible accessibility while preventing external attacks toward the confidential resources and databases.


Asus – the quest for excellence and innovation continues Founded : April, 1989

Type : Public listed company Traded as : TWSE: 2357/ LSE: ASKD

(Secondary)Headquarters : Taipei, TaiwanIndustry : Computer hardware and

electronics companyNo of Offices : 58Employees : About 17,000+ (R&D =

5,500)

AsusTek (or simply Asus) is the #1 international brand from Taiwan and

it has been enjoying this position for the last 4 years. The company has been named the most admired company for 2 consecutive years, and has retained the position of the #1 motherboard and graphics card makers in the world. It is passionate about technology and is driven by innovation. The company is always in search of incredible ideas and experiences and aspires to be incredible in everything it does.

Obsessed about innovation, Asus has in its offerings a number of interesting and innovative products. In the smartphone category, the Zenfone series has been quite great which was founded in 2014. In fact it is one of the top selling smartphone brands in South-East Asia,

Japan and Taiwan. Asus sees itself well prepared for the computing era, where in the next 5 - 10 years the company’s leadership sees covering personal computing, mobile computing, IoT computing and robotic computing on a large scale. And this would not be possible without the great leadership at Asus.

Apart from hardware, Asus has got a very big investment in the area of software. Asus Cloud is one of its subsidiaries; users around the world know them for the web storage service on the Asus devices. Taipei city government also has a very close collaboration with Asus Cloud to provide free web storage to all the citizens from the city.

A Big Focus on Gaming...We all understand that in spite of the PC

industry slowing down worldwide, the gaming industry has grown into a billion dollar business. There is a lot of potential to earn profits – both in the segments of gaming hardware and software. The gaming hardware market in 2016 alone had hit $30 billion globally; the growth has been however in the higher segment. The high-end purpose built PCs is where PC gaming vendors are putting their focus on for profitability. This drives home the point that gaming devices might be niche but gamers are not. Additionally, apps are driving the

gaming industry at a faster pace than what wasenvisagedafewyearsback.TheE-Sportsphenomenon is also gaining momentum, if not in all the markets, but in a few of the marketsglobally.In2016alone,therewerealone 148M viewers for e-sports, whichwillgoupto215millionin2019.Intermsof revenues, we are seeing a huge potential evolving around e-sports as it proves to be an ideal platform to reach out to young millennials who are active in the social spaceandaretechnologyconscious.In2016,e-sportswasa$493Millionbusiness,andisprojectedtogoupto$1.1billionbusinessby2019.

ROG (Republic of Gamers) is a gaming sub-brand of Asus that has been around for 10 years. Founded in 2006, it tries to give the best experience to the customers and build the future gaming landscape. Asus launched its first ROG products in 2006. The idea is to deliver the most innovative hardcore gaming hardware and solutions to offer an ultimate gaming experience to truly dedicated gamers worldwide. Since it saw this segment as something unique, Asus decided to operate it separately as a sub-brand. Today it has the most complete portfolio to cater to the gaming segment. Under the sub-brand, Asus has a huge product line-up of gaming products like gaming motherboards, gaming graphic cards, gaming monitor, gaming laptop and so on.

It plans to incorporate more products to this portfolio.

ROG plays an active part in the global gaming community, helping develop the industry by sponsoring events such as PAX, BlizzCon and Dreamhack. ROG has also been recognized as a

leader in PC gaming, winning many awards. In India, the latest product to be launched

in the market is the ROG Strix GL553 compact ultra-light gaming laptop. With its new ROG series launch, Asus has tried its best to cater to the demands of all the gaming segments i.e. from entry and mainstream levels to professional gaming.

It has always been Asus’s endeavour to provide the best gaming experience to the users and ultimately help the gaming industry in India and the worldwide to thrive. n

Samrita [email protected]

TAIWAN EXCELLENCE


FACE TO FACE

F5 intends to address bottlenecks in an app-centric world

Keeping application security into focus, F5 is adding to the company’s comprehensive security solutions that will provide visibility of gaps within one’s defence system as well as provide a hybrid strategy to mitigate any cyberattacks.

Parag Khurana, Managing Director - F5 Networks throws more light on this to discuss how F5 today looks at application security -

Hybrid cloud is a reality today. F5 recently did a study for 2000 of its top enterprise customers worldwide; almost 75% said

that hybrid cloud is a reality, while another 20% said that they will move half of their applications to the Cloud. There are three important things happening at present – digital economy, ecommerce and digital banking. And with this cyber security threats have increased.

The study also indicated that 5-7% of investment is on security spending nowadays.

“From F5 perspective, we still continue to be a leader in the ADC (Application Delivery Network) area worldwide; we enjoy a 50% market share. In India, we enjoy a market share of 35%. We are still focusing on application delivery but security has taken a bigger picture,” says Parag Khurana, Managing Director - F5 Networks.

Business leaders across different sectors are increasingly cognizant of how powerful applications and data assets can be in the journey to achieving agility demanded from the shift to the digital economy. More than ever, organizations need to rethink traditional security architectures, to focus on areas of greatest vulnerabilities – their applications and users.

“Apps have become mobile and they can be accessed on mobile phones. If we talk to a CIO or a CSO today, they say that 75-80% of their applications are web enabled. The next level for them will be to move these apps on cloud. But again their biggest concern is security. Earlier their environment was within a physical parameter, let’s say a datacenter. So even if you place your firewall within your parameter, you are ensured safe. But now it’s not the case because apps have moved out of the datacenter. Again for instance, a company provides infrastructure as a service; the concern for them will be that when a customer builds, configure and deploy an app on it, he should be able to deploy and secure it properly. Security concerns have indeed risen,” reiterates Parag.

The mission statement of F5 has been to deliver applications to users in a fast, secured and a reliable manner. For last 10 years the company has been protecting applications through its platform called web application firewall, but now it has brought in purpose-built hardware for that. “CSOs

• Herculon DDoS Hybrid Defender gives customers a multilayered defense against volumetric and pervasive DDoS attacks by integrating high-performance hardware with the intelligence of offsite cloud scrubbing via F5 Silverline. This hybrid approach improves time to mitigation in scenarios where website and application availability are crucial to customer interactions and profitability. The product can be deployed in-line or in out-of-band mode, and provides comprehensive DDoS coverage through behavioral analytics, sub-second attack mitigation, and visibility into sophisticated application layer attacks.

• Herculon SSL Orchestrator provides improved insight for the visibility gaps created by the growing use of encryption for application data. With purpose-built hardware for SSL/TLS, this product provides leading cryptographic capabilities, context-aware dynamic service chaining, and native integrations. A ‘defense in-depth’ strategy is employed to enhance detection, enforcement, and orchestration with support from a rich ecosystem of security vendors.

• Cloud-based application security as a service with Silverline® WAF Express: F5 is introducing a pre-configured, self-service offering that takes advantage of its cloud-based Silverline platform. Customers can easily select which applications WAF services are applied to, while F5 manages security policies behind the scenes to protect apps from a wide range of threats including OWASP attacks, parameter tampering, and bots. In this model, F5’s Security Operations Center experts engage and maintain policies, including monitoring, app attack mitigation, and analytics for applications hosted in the public or private cloud, as well as the data center.

need purpose-built solutions and so we are launching now a new series of products called Herculon. They are into 2 areas – the first product is in the DDoS area (Herculon DDoS Hybrid Defender) and the 2nd in the area of encryption (Herculon SSL Orchestrator),” says Parag.

While focusing on cyber security, F5 has partnered with other security elements, for instance for Herculon SSL Orchestrator it has partnered with ATP vendors.

F5 sees massive opportunities for protecting applications. The company is present across verticals, but those companies that are app-savvy or are adopting business apps happen to come to F5 for its solutions. “Like the banking sector for their internet banking, IT-ITeS, Telecom are some of the verticals where adoption of application security is deeper and stronger. Even Pharma and Manufacturing verticals are moving to application security in a big way,” says Parag.

He further continues, “We are in a kind of business where if infrastructure grows, then we are surely to leapfrog. Indian customers have been investing to protect the traditional parameters of physical security, but what is changing drastically is the shift to application security. Security is a market where threats are evolving and protection has to evolve along with that. There is a catch-up game happening. The challenge before a CSO today is how fast they can convince their management to invest more,” sums up Parag. n



Cisco India: Will Five Pronged Cybersecurity Strategy Work?

opportunity, Cisco India is focussing on a five-pronged strategy laying focus on a complete suite of cybersecurity innovations, launch of Cyber Range Lab in Gurgaon, Security Operations Centre to be launched in Pune, Security & Trust Organization and security companies acquisition. This 360-degree approach by Cisco will definitely help government organizations and corporates to secure digital transactions in a seamless manner.

For security, Cisco has invested $5 billion in the last 36 months – be it in terms of acquiring cutting-edge security companies or making foolproof security products for its customers.

Innovations in Security Product and Solutions: For conducting innovations in the cybersecurity space, Cisco has around 5,000 engineers globally and around 1,000 engineers in India. All these engineers focus on different aspects of security – be it infrastructure

According to NASSCOM and DSCI Cyber Security Roadmap, the Indian

IT industry has charted out Vision 2025 to grow the Indian cybersecurity products and services market to reach $35 billion and create one million cybersecurity experts and 1,000 cybersecurity start-ups by 2025. On the other hand, the global security market is expected to reach approximately $190 billion by 2025 from $85 billion today and will be driven primarily by increasing digitization and smartphone penetration.

According to industry experts, India is among the Top 5 countries in the world to be attacked by ransomware and malware. All this creates a big opportunity for companies like Cisco in the cybersecurity space, thanks to the government's Digital India programme and corporate digitization programme which is moving at a brisk pace. To encash on the

security, endpoint security, application security, messaging security, web security, IoT security, transaction security, security operations and incident response, risk & compliance and threat intelligence and specialist threat analysis and protection.

Cyber Range Lab in Gurgaon: Deepening its commitment to enhancing cybersecurity, Cisco recently inaugurated its Cyber Range Lab in Gurgaon, India. The Cyber Range Lab aims to provide highly specialized technical training workshops to help security staff build the skills and experience necessary to combat new-age threats.

The lab was recently inaugurated by Dr Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator, Government of India, in the presence of Dinesh Malkani, President, Cisco India and SAARC, at the Cisco India Summit 2017.

Speaking on the launch of Cyber Range Lab in India, Dr Gulshan Rai said, "With this launch, Cisco has taken a leadership step to enhance the security of India’s digital infrastructure and speed up digitalization of India.”

"With the launch of Cisco Cyber Range, we are helping our customers to be prepared to identify and mitigate a threat before it becomes a crisis. The Cisco Cyber Range Lab is now a reality for customers looking to find an advantage against the growing legions of cybercriminals and next-generation threats. The Cyber Range Lab in India underlines our commitment to secure and partner with India in its digital transformation,” commented Dinesh Malkani.

Cisco Cyber Range Lab will use 200-500 different types of malware, ransomware and

To meet the objectives of Digital India, the company is focussing on a complete suite of cybersecurity solutions such as innovations in security products and solutions, Cyber Range Lab in Gurgaon, Security Operations Centre in Pune, Security & Trust Organization in Gurgaon and acquisition of security companies

Company Acquisition Year Specialisation

Network Translation 1995 FirewallIronport 2007 Email and Web SecurityScanSafe 2009 Cloud Based Web SecuritySourcefire 2013 Intelligent Cyber SecurityNeohpasis 2015 Security AdvisoryLancope 2015 Security AnalyticsOpenDNS 2015 Threat ProtectionCloudLOCK 2016 Cloud Security ThreatGrid 2016 Dynamic Malware Analysis and Threat Intelligence

Source: VARINDIA

Security Companies Acquisition by Cisco

VAR CORPORATE


"With this launch, Cisco has taken a leadership step to enhance the security of India’s digital infrastructure and speed up digitalization of India" - Dr. Gulshan Rai, National Cybersecurity Coordinator, National Security Council, Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India

"The Cisco Cyber Range Lab is now a reality for customers looking to find an advantage against the growing legions of cybercriminals and next generation threats. The Cyber Range Lab in India underlines our commitment to secure and partner with India in its digital transformation" - Dinesh Malkani, president, Cisco India and SAARC

STO works with public and private-sector customers to help analyze their infrastructure, understand cyber risks, identify and mitigate vulnerabilities, and assist in building networks on a foundation of secure, resilient, and trustworthy products. Security & Trust organization is based in Gurgaon and will help in identifying, shaping and bridging national cybersecurity strategy initiatives for the government.

Acquisition of Security Companies: Security, cloud and software are critical components of Cisco's strategy. During the last 12 years, the company has acquired 9 companies in the security space and is in the process of providing foolproof security to corporates and government departments.

Network Translation, a firewall company, was acquired by Cisco in 1995 and the company also acquired IronPort in January 2007. IronPort email and web security gateway and management products, currently referred as Cisco Email Security and Cisco Web Security, has now become an integral part of the Cisco Security vision and strategy. The security products and technology from IronPort complement Cisco's threat mitigation, confidential communications, policy control, and management solutions.

In December 2009, Cisco acquired ScanSafe and kept it as a separate business unit, but, in 2012, the service was renamed as Cisco Cloud Web Security. On October 7, 2013, Cisco completed the acquisition of Sourcefire, a leader in intelligent cybersecurity solutions. With the close of this acquisition, Cisco is providing industry's most comprehensive advanced threat protection portfolios. Cisco is also offering a broad set of enforcement and remediation options that are integrated, pervasive, continuous, and open.

On January 9, 2015, Cisco announced the acquisition of Neohapsis, a privately-held security advisory company providing security services to address customers' evolving information security, risk management, and compliance challenges. Neohapsis delivers risk management, compliance, cloud, application, mobile, and infrastructure security solutions to Fortune 500 customers. The acquisition of Neohapsis helps in reducing complexity and fragmentation while providing advanced threat protection across the entire attack continuum – before, during, and after an attack.

Cisco has also acquired Lancope, a privately-held company headquartered in Alpharetta, U.S.A. Lancope helps customers monitor, detect, analyze and respond to modern threats on enterprise networks through continuous network visibility and specialized threat analysis and protection. Lancope's StealthWatch system provides visibility into suspicious traffic patterns inside the network to quickly detect a wide range of attacks. This helps enterprises reduce time to detection, respond to incidents faster, improve forensic investigations, and reduce risks for the company.

Lancope enhances Cisco's Security Everywhere strategy, enabling the network to become a security sensor, delivering continuous visibility, and accelerating incident response across the extended enterprise.

100 attack cases to deliver realistic cyber-attack experiences which can be accessed virtually from any part of the world. As part of the Cyber Range experience, Cisco has designed real-world scenarios to help clients experience, defend against and shut down cyber-attacks. The scenarios will also help train organizations with the necessary steps required to respond quickly in the wake of an incident, right from addressing a basic threat to a highly sophisticated one, monitoring and analyzing malware infections and providing actionable information and intelligence to customers.

The Cisco Cyber Range Lab will offer a comprehensive integrated services portfolio, which includes: Workshops of 3–5 days of intensive real-life experience reacting to and defending against rudimentary and complex cyber-attacks at any location; Cyber Range subscriptions, which offer advance threat intelligence reports; Assistance in re-creating similar cyber range labs at customers’ premises and provide threat intelligence updates via subscription.

The lab will also enable customers to tap into a pool of resources such as security specialists and test engineers at Cisco. Cisco security experts will work closely with organizations to understand their business goals, and security challenges and offer test runs on the proposed cybersecurity solution/infrastructure.

Security Operations Centre (SOC) in Pune: The company is also planning to launch Security Operations Centre in Q4 quarter of Cisco (i.e. May–July 2017) timeframe. The SOC will provide multiple services and also provide advance threat analysis (ATA). Security Operations Centre (SOC) in Pune will provide a broad range of services – from monitoring and management to comprehensive threat solutions and hosted security that can be customized to meet customer/partner needs. With India as the fourth location in addition to Poland, the U.S. and Japan, this structure allows Cisco to provide a 24-hour service for customers and partners regardless of time zone.

Security & Trust Organization (STO): The Cisco India Security & Trust Organization (STO) was launched in December 2016. The

On August 27, 2015, Cisco announced it has completed the acquisition of OpenDNS, a privately-held company that provides advanced threat protection for any device, anywhere and anytime. Acquisition of OpenDNS' threat protection capabilities complement and enhance Cisco's current cloud security offerings across Cisco franchise. OpenDNS' Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform is fast and easy to deploy, accelerating time-to-value for customers as part of their defence architecture or incident response strategies.

On August 1, 2016, Cisco completed its acquisition of CloudLock, a privately-held cloud security company headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. CloudLock specializes in cloud access security broker (CASB) technology. CASB technology understands and monitors user behaviour and sensitive data in cloud applications. It helps secure cloud applications that customers buy – SaaS applications such as Google Drive, Salesforce, and Box – as well as the applications that they build like the IaaS and PaaS platforms.

With these capabilities added to the Cisco security portfolio, Cisco will be able to provide customers with greater visibility, compliance and threat protection regardless of whether the applications are fully sanctioned by IT or not.

On June 2016, Cisco completed the acquisition of ThreatGRID, a New York-based company that offers dynamic malware analysis and threat intelligence technology to enable security teams to proactively defend against and to quickly respond to advanced cyber-attacks and malware outbreaks. The ThreatGRID products complement Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) portfolio and the private-cloud products expands Cisco's ability to protect customers with stringent in-house data retention requirements.

All these strategies will really help Cisco to position itself as the leader in the security market across all customer segments – be it government or corporate. n



LEAD STORY

Ransomware – Era of Digital ExtortionRansomware attacks have increased from a few

hundred(s) in 2005 to 2.5 mn in 2016 Ransomware (the hot favourite in the world

of cybercrime) is setting the new era of digital extortion. Ransomware is a class of malware that restricts access to the computer system it infects, and demands a ransom paid to the creator of the malware for the restriction to be removed (Wikipedia). It is nothing but a straightforward extortion software tool designed to encrypt your data/lock declaring that the system is locked, followed by a ransom demand. RSA-2048 encryption is used to perform the heinous act. The year 2015 marked the birth of ransomware. Since then, it has transformed (matured) from a fake antivirus tool to a leading tool in the hands of digital cybercriminals extorting anywhere between $500 and $20,000 to unlock data/systems from individuals, businesses and other organizations.

Ransomware is of two types. Type I is

encryption ransomware which encrypts the files on the hard disk and one may find it quite difficult to decrypt without paying the ransom demanded. Type II is non-encryption ransomware where there is no encryption but instead locks up the systems with a message “Your computer is locked”.

The evolution and prominence of ransomware can be well imagined with the growth of ransomware attacks of just a few hundred(s) in 2005 to 2.5 million-plus in 2016.

Ransomware AttacksThe initial attempts to find an opportunity by

performing a reconnaissance through a phishing email. Reportedly, 93 per cent of all phishing emails are said to be containing encryption ransomware. Phishing emails hit a new high of 6.3 million in the last year. The usual infection (Ex: CryptoWall) is through email attachments

B. S. RaoVice-President, Marketing CtrlS Datacenters

Cyber security is of much importance when it comes to datacenters, The aim of physical data center security is largely the same worldwide; barring any local regulatory restrictions - keeping out the people unwanted in the building, and if they do make it in, then identify them as soon as possible (ideally also keeping them contained to a section of the building). The old adage of network security specialists, that “security is like an onion” applies just as much for the physical security of a data center.

The data center security market is expected to grow from USD 6.32 Billion in 2016 to USD 12.91 Billion by 2021, at a high Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.36%. For the purpose of report, 2015 has been considered as the historical year and 2016 as the base year for performing market estimation and forecasting. The data center security market is witnessing a rapid growth due to the growing need for network virtualization and cloud computing that bring out higher work efficiency levels within the organization. Data center security solutions help in securing big data transfers and securing a network from any risk. Additionally, the growing adoption of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) calls for advanced secured network solutions.

Security going beyond traditional parameters


with enticing subject lines are sent attached with zip files containing ransomware executables or even a link to click on. Once the individual opens the files, the executable file locks up the system and in case the he/she clicks on the malicious link, a connection is established to the malicious website and immediately an exploit is launched and malware is shipped online – if the ransomware hacker manages to gain control of the system, the system is locked and a message such as “Your system is locked” is displayed.

Browser When you visit a website a browser, hijacker

locks up your browser with a message that “Your browser has been locked” – to indicate that the hijacker has taken over the browser does not allow the user to close the browser (window) or switch to another web page and demands a ransom to gain access to your system again.

World’s Most Dreaded Ransomwares

Cryptolocker, Cryptoware, Locky, Jigsaw, Teslacrypt, Fareit, Samsam, Peyta, Fantom, Crysis, Cerber, Shade, Powerware and Ransom32,

among others are the digital extortionists ruling the world of cybercriminals.

Ransomware Demands Across Industry

A hospital in LA, USA was infected with ransomware and had to pay up ransom in bitcoin(s) after their system and network was locked up for more than a week. In some cases, MRI is locked until the ransom is paid, an X-ray machine is turned off and files are encrypted until the ransomware is paid. One other hospital ended up paying over $10,000 as ransom to restore its IT systems. Almost 80 per cent healthcare organizations have been affected by ransomware. In yet another case, the ransomware criminals gained control of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) of a data center and released only after the ransom was paid. In a recent case in India, an ERP system of a multinational was locked by ransomware criminals and they had to pay up the ransom in bitcoins. An educational institute too was hit by ransomware attack and had to cough up the ransom to restore their systems. India ranks number one on the ransomware radar, besides

other countries from Europe and Americas.

Ransomware PreventionTo prevent ransomware attacks, it is critical

that every organization deploys latest web and spam filters, IDS, antivirus, IP/Cloud reputation systems, DNS layer security (as per system deployment). Sandboxing is yet another way to prevent and secure your systems. This apart, it is important to take regular data backups, disable RDPs to thwart any ransomware attacks.

Lastly, it is important to avoid plugging in the USB sticks (usually received during trade shows) where information is circulated for business or academic purposes. It could contain ransomware (virus) infecting your initial system where it is inserted and then go on to infect all other systems on the network and then lock up the systems and demand a ransom. To avoid such occurrence, it is important to scan the USB stick/drive before using, encrypt data on USB drive. It would be best to avoid USB sticks in the first place as a policy in the organization.

Finally, as far as ransomware is concerned, prevention is better than cure.

DT Act, 2000 Amended DT Act, 2000 will definitely help India

The amendment of 2008 has failed to define word “Hacking” or “Hacker”, surprisingly the act of hacking with the very word “hacking” finds a mention in section 66 of the original Act.

Section 79 of the amended IT Act, 2000 is not a penal section under the Act. Penalty under the Act would arise on any person or a body corporate. When an incident has occurred on account of other sections such as Sec 43, 43-A, 65, 66, 66A, 66B, 66C, 66D, 66E, 66F, 67, 67A, 67B, 69, 69A, 69B, 70, 71, 72, 72A, 73, 74, 84B, 84C etc. which can be brought under any of these sections and the person who is accused is otherwise an “Intermediary” as defined under the Act, then the provisions of Section 79 apply. These provisions give him an opportunity to escape his liability. To use these provisions he needs to act such in a manner which can be considered as “Exercising Due Diligence”.

The amended IT Act, 2000 has not specifically dealt with the issues pertaining to Ediscovery. Today, increasingly organizations are relying upon digital evidence like email etc. and media as a means of communicating with each other and conducting business. IT Act, 2000 remains silent on this issue and also leaves scope for business exploitation of Ediscovery by large consulting firms at their own interpretation.

The IT Act, 2000 have not dealt with spam issue in a comprehensive manner. The definitions section does not define the word spam nor is even mentioned anywhere in the Act. The practice of sending unsolicited emails is getting rampant in India which also amounts to breach of individuals right to privacy on the net. While India already features in the top ten nations from

where spam originates, the legislature did not think of taking exclusive cognizance to this huge menace, which jams our new national resource “the bandwidth”.

A Cyber Cafe is also an “Intermediary” hence the obligations under Section 79 and the rules framed there in for “Intermediaries” already apply to Cyber Cafes. The rules for Cyber Cafes are incomplete rules requiring further rule making at the State Government level. The rules also infringe on the powers of the State Government for maintaining law and order in the State.

Cyber Squatting which relates to stealing or assuming a domain name of a established brand by a new or less known brand or a company or an individual, is not exclusively covered in the IT Act.

The crime of pornography by foreign websites is let loose and is not discussed nor being penalized. This flaw also makes Indian cyber criminals to host their pornography related website’s on foreign shores without being accounted for in Indian territory.

Taxation of ecommerce transactions when a transaction is committed from Indian jurisdiction is not explicitly discussed nor are any passing references made in a view to bind it with Indian tax laws.

Jurisdiction of electronic contracts is not clearly defined in the Act. Cross border contracts since “Click-Wrap” contracts are not legally recognized as equivalent to digitally signed contract, body corporates relying on “Click-Wrap Contracts” (Where the user clicks on a button or checkbox I agree”) need to take such additional measures as may be required to provide a supplementary evidentiary base for validating the contracts.

A clear section with regards to Jurisdiction of courts over parties staying or operating in different jurisdictions or countries is not covered. Even though having a complete separate legal jurisdiction for the cyber world, is not an expectation but certain clear guidelines necessary help lower courts and humble netizens.• Law remains silent for stamp duty on

electronic contracts. eStamp duty if permitted can yield lot of revenue to the government.

• Internet hour theft being completely

Lacuna's in India’s Cyber Security

Prashant Mali, Advocate Practicing lawyer from Bombay High Court. (Specialist in cyber and electronic evidence related matters)


intangible and different type of theft other than theft of tangible items, Internet hours or bandwidth theft is not taken care of in The IT Act, 2000.Recourse to section 379 of The IPC may not result in justice for reasons of interpretation.

• There is no power given to police for entering and searching private places .Many cyber criminals operate from homes where police cannot search. Also major penal sections though cognizable are also bailable, this

option allows the accessed to seek and get anticipatory bail before even action begins.

• Major offences covered under this Act are bailable. Thus interim reliefs, anticipatory bails etc. would be in vogue with cyber criminals.

• The IT Act, 2000 does not explicitly consider Intellectual Property Rights in the Internet domain.

• There is no clause under section 43 which describes cyber/online defamation, thus has

no provision for compensation for cyber/online defamation.

• The definition of data includes sound stored, sent or received, that makes even a person speaking on microphone liable under The IT Act, 2000 as what he says is a Data.

• This law does not talk explicitly of forming cyber crime courts for criminal trials. The law is silent on authorized cyber forensics tools to be used in investigation.

Mobile networks are inherently secure and data is protected, but the lack of awareness around risks lurking in the cyberspace is posing new challenges

Internet is undoubtedly one of the greatest technological blessings of our time but we cannot overlook the possible threats such as hacking, cyber stalking, fraud, bullying and abuse. They are making headlines every day, and the incidence has only increased in the recent past. It is easier to identify such harms and mitigate the risks in real life, but in the virtual world very few understand how to identify and resolve these issues.

As service providers, the onus is on telecom operators to ensure that users not only benefit from being connected to the information superhighway, but they are also adequately equipped to protect themselves from falling prey to online harms. The emphasis is not only to bring the new but old mobile users too within the folds of a connected world and also educate the next generation of users on safe Internet practices. As digitization touches every aspect of our life, it is important for all of us to acknowledge and understand the nature of threats we are exposed to and how to avoid them.

Digital Transformation through GSK

As users migrate from voice and feature phones to data and Internet-enabled phones, the transition should be without fear and hesitation. To make this happen and to answer any question on the new way of connected life, Telenor Grahak Shiksha Kendras (GSK) or customer education hubs are playing an important role. There are nearly 400 GSKs across nine states where trained customer relation executives are educating customers on how to use an Internet-enabled mobile device and telling them about the benefits of being connected by taking precautions such as strong passwords and getting the privacy settings right.

Initiatives like Internet on Wheels, where the retail store comes to the doorsteps of customers. These are the first steps towards acquiring digital skills and also help customers understand Internet to use it more meaningfully.

Cyber Safety for Children

In 2012, when everyone was discussing faster Internet speeds and improving customer experience, a survey commissioned by the Telenor Group revealed that over 134 million children will come online by 2017 in India alone. However, given the pace of Internet growth in the last five years, this number will be far higher than any estimate. While this is an indication of how fast our younger generation is becoming part of the technology changes happening across the world, the survey also highlighted the low resilience among them when it came to online threats.

Proliferation of affordable mobile devices and easy access to Internet has exposed our kids to good as well as harmful content and practices. The survey indicated that in India every second child, who is using Internet, has faced some form of cyberbullying. In fact, cyberbullying has emerged as one of the major issues online and often it goes undetected as children do not discuss the issue with parents or teachers.

Realizing these vulnerabilities, in 2014 Telenor started a programme called WebWise in schools. These interactive workshops focus on creating awareness among students, teachers as well as parents. The interactive sessions include case-studies and practical information on how to surf the Internet safely, minimize potential harm on social media, be resilient to cyberbullying and even tips on how to set smart passwords. Till now, WebWise has reached to

over 55,000 students in 102 schools across 14 cities.

Most of these efforts are voluntary in nature and not mandated by policy or regulation. If the industry is talking about an Internet-driven lifestyle, then we should create an environment where there is no hesitation or fear in embracing digitization. For example, as part of a global initiative, Telenor Group collaborated with the European Commission’s CEO Coalition to make Internet a better place for kids and worked with Interpol to become the first mobile operator in the world to introduce Child Sexual Abuse filters for mobile phones. In India too, Telenor has worked closely with the authorities to implement CSA filters to block any content related to child pornography and today these websites, as per the Interpol’s list, cannot be accessed on mobile networks in the country.

Telenor has been able to successfully drive cyber safety awareness amongst various sections of the society, while ensuring an enriching customer experience. These are small steps towards the larger goal that needs support from all stakeholders in the digital ecosystem.

Realizing these vulnerabilities, in 2014 Telenor started a programme called WebWise in schools. These interactive workshops focus on

creating awareness among students, teachers as well as parents. The interactive sessions include case-studies and practical information

on how to surf the Internet safely, minimize potential harm on social

media, be resilient to cyberbullying and even tips on how to set smart

passwords.

Create Awareness to Protect Cyber Threats

Sharad MehrotraCEOTelenor India Communications

LEAD STORY


Protecting files and enabling ‘safe sharing’ of information will help improve digital adoption

India, in its 71st year of Independence, is witnessing enormous digital advances. While we continue to plug into the digital realm, there are huge risks lurking around the corner especially in terms of protecting the important privacy documents of the larger population in general. Robust data integrity, both inside and outside the perimeter of Public Sector Enterprises and Government institutions, including but not limited to third party affiliates and vendor organisations, will ensure long terms benefits for all stakeholders.

How safe are your ID proofs & KYC Documents?

While the government has made the right move with demonetisation, there is still much to achieve when it comes to the digital world. The government’s digital momentum initiative needs to address the rising security and privacy concerns of citizens. Large private organizations pull out all stops to ensure their information assets are protected both within their boundaries as well as from the risks outside their perimeter. In the same way, government files, documents, citizen details stored should also be right protected. The all-important question is, how safe is your important data like ID proofs and KYC Documents etc? We live and work in an always-on digital economy. Free movement of data, oils the wheels of today’s enterprise – as well as the modern-day government by making information flow seamlessly across enterprise borders.

While digitization helps improve information-sharing and collaboration amongst your different stakeholders, right protection is mission-critical to avoid any misuse of data. Protecting sensitive files and enabling ‘safe sharing’ of information will help improve digital adoption. In particular, soft copies of customers’ KYC documents and identification proofs needs to be protected, ideally with persistent data-centric security that travels with the files. It is equally important in cases of tax & land records, transaction files, court documents etc. that can be accessed and utilized by only authorized users. This will help build the citizen’s full trust in our digital march.

Should third party outsourcing vendors be regulated?

Hence there has to be a parallel initiative taken by Government wherein, security of digital data needs go hand in hand with digitization of data. It cannot be left aside in this fast-paced world. We also hope to see Government organizations placing stricter compliance regulations on their third-party outsource vendors and other external collaboration partners. Third-parties such as advisors, vendors, sub-contractors and business partners pose a huge risk to organizations because they require access to systems and data to conduct business, yet there is no accountability in the way they handle a company’s data. Besides unsecured systems, there is also the issue of sub-contractors stealing intellectual property.

What’s in store in the immediate future?

2017 will be a Historic Year for Cybersecurity Legislation. High-profile incidents such as the breaches at the Democratic National Committee and Yahoo, and the Apple encryption debate have increased public awareness around the importance of data security and privacy. In India too several Indian banks blocked and recalled

more than 3.2 million debit cards, fearing fraud due to data leakage caused by a malware infection at a third-party ATM switch used by one of the banks. The growing awareness, coupled with the government’s willingness to acknowledge the national security risks posed by cyberattacks, makes us hopeful we’ll see meaningful progress made in the fight to create effective cyber-legislation.

Many countries such as the US and Israel have their own cyber security frameworks. Europe is leading the way with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) act and we expect countries to follow with similar legislation. There is an urgent need for India also to have a robust cybersecurity framework in place to set up the backbone of stringent IT security measures in the country. This legislation may start with mandatory breach notifications, which initially eliminate undisclosed (or slowly disclosed) cyber incidents, but will eventually take the form of specific guidelines for how citizens’ data must be protected, wherever it travels or is stored.

Regulations Should Protect Citizen's Data

While digitization helps improve information-sharing and collaboration amongst your different stakeholders, right protection is mission-

critical to avoid any misuse of data. Protecting sensitive files and enabling ‘safe sharing’ of information will help improve

digital adoption. In particular, soft copies of customers’ KYC documents and identification proofs needs to

be protected, ideally with persistent data-centric security that travels

with the files. Amit MalhotraVP, Sales India, Middle East & AfricaSeclore

Stepping into a Secure WorldA strong mobile security regime undoubtedly has significant benefits, but,

due to inaccurate end-user preconceptions, it is challenging to implement it

In 2015, a British insurance company, Lloyd's, estimated that, due to cyber-attacks, the industry incurs a staggering loss of $400 billion a year, which includes direct damage plus post-attack disruption to the normal course of business.

However, other forecasts, over the past year, have put the cybercrime figure at a frightening $500 billion and beyond. In fact, as the world increasingly becomes digital, cybercrime has the potential to be one of the greatest threats to

organizations around the world. According to the BlackBerry’s mobile security

research conducted by BlackBerry Limited, a leader in secure mobile communications, while 73 per cent of organizations have a mobile

LEAD STORY


Narendra NayakMD BlackBerry India

security strategy in place, just 3 per cent have implemented the highest levels of security possible. This is due in part to user’s attitude – 82% of executives say their existing mobile security practices cause frustration among their employees, while 44 per cent fear that too much security will prevent staff from doing their jobs. These attitudes have led to a risky environment, one in which nearly nine out of ten executives (86 per cent) are nervous that their company’s security won’t be enough to keep out hackers or malware. Part of the reason organizations are opening themselves up to these risks is because of the growing trend of BYOD – where despite the popularity, almost half believe that supporting a BYOD policy is a risk. So what can be done about this volatile business environment?

Security is an enabler, not an inconvenienceTime and again, we hear people speak

about information security as a hindrance or an inconvenience. However, when implemented properly, security works with the employees, not against them. Security is, in fact, an enabler. It can connect people to their required resources with ease, allowing them to work seamlessly with tools they are comfortable using. Security focusses on meeting the needs of the end-user, helping them become more productive, alongside the needs of IT. But, for that, an active approach is required by IT departments, especially for BYOD.

Half of executives surveyed by BlackBerry predict that their employees’ mobile devices will inevitably result in security breaches at their organization. Therefore, a critical element to a successful BYOD or COPE (corporate-owned, personally-enabled) mobile environment is ensuring the isolation and separation of personal and business mobile data, also known

as containerization. However, nearly 45 per cent have no containerization technology in place. And no one is sure how to address this challenge, whether on corporate-owned or BYOD devices – despite half of respondents agreeing that support of BYOD creates risks at their company. A strong mobile security regime undoubtedly has significant benefits. However, due to inaccurate end-user’s preconceptions, it is challenging to implement it. To address this, it is advisable to regularly evaluate the controls and policies in place to protect the organization.

Security is not a luxury The predicted losses of billions of dollars

clearly underline the paramount importance of

security in today’s world. A world where data is on the move – on smartphones, tablets, wearables and laptops – with travelling executives, sales people, field workers, contractors, clients and partners. All this access comes at a price: security. Companies and IT departments are working hard to balance the benefits of mobility – greater productivity, happier workers, decreased costs and increased flexibility – with the risk that a lost or stolen device, malicious app, insider threat or other vulnerability may threaten the safety of corporate data and assets. In line with this, BlackBerry has recently unveiled its mobile-native approach to security with the launch of a comprehensive platform designed for the Enterprise of Things. The BlackBerry Enterprise Mobility Suite enables a consistent approach to endpoint management across multiple OS platforms. It completes the integration of the company's prior acquisitions of security software companies, including Good Technology, WatchDox, AtHoc and Encription. With over 80 security certifications, BlackBerry recently ranked the highest in all six use-cases of Gartner's "Critical Capabilities for High-Security Mobility Management" report.

According to various industry reports, cybercrime costs have quadrupled from 2013 to 2015. This is expected to quadruple again from 2015 to 2019. Juniper research predicts that the rapid digitization of consumers’ lives and enterprise records will increase the cost of data breaches to $2.1 trillion globally by 2019, increasing to almost four times the estimated cost of breaches in 2015. Therefore, now is the time to act and secure (our) one of the most valuable assets – data!

Managing Cyber Security RiskDigital technology and cashless economy has given rise to many cybersecurity threats

Every organization with digital information assets should have a well laid-out plan to support its security and be compliant to the laws of the land. To achieve this goal, major stakeholders in the company should come together and build a remedial plan in case of any cyber incident. Every company’s approach to mitigating privacy, security risk, complexity and viability of these programmes differs from company to company, depending on its size, space and industry.

Organization that has a limited clientele and revenue, and which handles a small amount of non-public financial data might develop a brief charter points for a privacy and security plan, or perhaps a written standard or policy setting forth the entities regulatory and legal obligations from a privacy perspective. On the other hand, a large and more complex corporation that handles sensitive information is likely to have a number of governance documents that outline and implement appropriate privacy, security policies, processes, procedures and measures. The key factors to be taken into consideration while taking stock of your risk are:

Legal and regulatory risk: What sets of compliance, regulations and principles are required to be followed?

How could a data privacy breach or security incident do to your reputation among your customer base?

What would happen if you are required to notify the media, regulators, shareholders, stakeholders of the organization and how this shall impact your business and image in the corporate world?

What are the financial risks of an external threat and attack to your information system? Could this downtime affect the revenue of your organization?

Could the external and internal threats hamper your operations? What losses directly or indirectly your business would incur caused by a security incident or unforeseen disaster?

Could your business partner take you to court for laxity in implementing proper security practices and causing huge monetary loss?

What could happen if the law-enforcement agency would register offence for keeping the

information system unattended and making a gateway for criminals to commit crime at your expense?

What could happen if your data is encrypted and demanding ransomware? Would you like to be caught at ransom for your negligence?

Once you have identified your risks, start thinking about programmes and procedures that address the risks that could have the largest and the most immediate impact on your business. A third-party assessment of your system, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing and implementation of proper cybersecurity practices are recommended for data protection, privacy governance, security framework and compliance.

Taking Inventory An inventory of your physical and data assets

should be performed to help shape your security programs. Conduct a sensitive information inventory and data diagramming exercise to identity the systems and applications on your network that need highest level of physical and


technical security.

Internal governance Creating policy and governance documents

is a very important challenge. Does the company really need a highly detailed incident response plan and should the privacy policy be elaborative in nature? You should leverage and implement from documented best practices, follow compliance and build up an ecosystem, wherein there is a minimized risk to your information and data assets. The organization’s incident response plan should be tailored to the risk your business faces. It should be a road map for security, compliance and business leaders in the event of business interruptions, business attacks, natural disasters and data breaches.

Monitoring and Compliance Any organization handling information

should have dedicated cybersecurity personnel, conduct regular audit, monitor network for vulnerabilities, threats and security events. Organization should ensure that their staff is aware of security and privacy rules and remains vigilant against policy violations. Make sure that

your security professional has an up-to-date understanding of privacy and security laws,

rules, regulations and industry best practices by monitoring developments and periodically updating policies to reflect any significant changes.

Progress Mapping Changing organizational culture and

successfully implementing a set of standards might encourage business leaders to expand and implement organizational privacy and security programmes. An effective cybersecurity plan should have:

Training programme for employees• Use of licensed softwares• Building, deploying effective hardware and

software firewalls• Establishing a collateral server• Keeping the backup option on while

configuring the OS. This shall ensure that no data be lost.

• Choose a vendor giving you complete solutions under one roof

Dr Harold D’CostaCEOIntelligent Quotient Security System

Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu MD - India & SAARC Check Point Software Technologies

India’s National Cyber Security Policy was adopted in 2013 and includes both high-level principles and targeted objectives and proposals. However, the plan has not been fully implemented and the legal framework supporting cybersecurity remains weak. India has been no exception to the devastating cybersecurity breaches that hit multiple industries across the world in 2016. These attacks have proved, time and again, that no one is immune to sophisticated cyber-attacks.

In this sophisticated threat environment, where traditional security tactics are failing, it is high time we revisit our security posture to build a strong cyber-resilient framework. As businesses lean on technology for business advantage, newer threat vectors are emerging.

Substantial growth in the online and digital data, smart city initiatives by the Indian Government have pushed the Internet of Things (IoT) market and indirectly the cybersecurity space in India by leaps and bounds. Cyber-attacks have increased year over year making Indian business and government sites more vulnerable. It is now important for Indian enterprises to look at methods to prevent attacks and not just detect attacks. For protection against today’s attacks, the emphasis should be on speed and prevention. Organizations need to take a more proactive approach to cybersecurity.

As businesses and government managed citizen services go increasingly digital, cyber threats are only going to become even more difficult to track, predict and manage. Tackling or preparing for cybercrime is perhaps going to become the most important task for any enterprise. Without a proactive, people-centred cybersecurity strategy in place, businesses run the risk of alienating customers even before they

Encryption and tokenization are becoming accepted best practices to support compliance

Balancing Cloud with Data Protection

that leads to unavailability and security issues.• HumanElement

You are only as strong as your weakest link. If people are improperly trained or (worse)

disgruntled, they can misconfigure technology, which can cause catastrophic and unrecoverable disaster. Companies need to educate employees about security – teaching them about the dangers of phishing, unencrypted data and lax reactions, etc.• ChoosingRightSecurityTechnology

Security products should prevent the enemy from getting inside the network. Detecting and blocking the threat only after it has penetrated the network does not really make any sense, especially when you can prevent it.

A robust security framework that seeks to prevent and not just detect security threats is an absolute must. In addition, the framework should evolve with the growing business needs. Periodic optimization of security infrastructure will also help enterprises detect and prevent more threats and lower the total cost of ownership on previous security investments.

Peak into the futureAs we look into 2017, we expect to see

mobility, Industrial IoT, critical infrastructure and the cloud being the key areas of focus for hackers, besides the traditional threat vectors that exist today.

As attacks on mobile devices continue to grow in the world of mobility, we can expect to see enterprise breaches that originate on mobile devices becoming a more significant corporate security concern. The recent nation-state sponsored attacks on journalists’ mobile phones mean that these attack methods are now in the

engage with the brand.

Components of Cyber Security Framework • RightSecurityArchitecture

The right architecture creates a framework for a stable security platform. By implementing the correct architecture, you eliminate single points of failure providing the necessary strength and resiliency to maintain operations and security under any circumstances. Improper architecture is the most common cause for catastrophic failure

LEAD STORY


Anil ChandaliyaChief Innovation Officer - ESDS Software Solution Pvt. Ltd.

Protecting root cause of insecurity must for securing a datacenter

wild and we should expect to see organized crime actors use them.

Critical infrastructure is highly vulnerable to cyber-attack. Nearly all critical infrastructures, including nuclear power plants and telecommunications towers, were designed and built before the threat of cyber-attacks. In early 2016, the first blackout caused intentionally by a cyber-attack was reported. Security planners in critical infrastructure need

to plan for the possibility that their networks and systems will see attack methods consistent with multiple potential threat actors, including nation-states, terrorism and organized crime.

There will also be a rise in ransomware attacks impacting cloud-based data centers. As more organizations embrace the cloud, both public and private, these types of attacks will start finding their way into this new infrastructure, through either encrypted files

spreading cloud to cloud or by hackers using the cloud as a volume multiplier.

No sector is immune to vulnerabilities today. Threat researchers say the number, sophistication and virulence of cyber threats continue to grow day by day. Our core focus needs to shift to threat prevention space across endpoint, network and mobile, besides detection solutions.

Cybersecurity is no longer an option, it is an absolute necessity.

The world has been always vulnerable and unsecure. The primary reason of insecurity of the world is

greed of human being. The greed of power and money is the primary source of security problem. This is

arising due to non-adoptability of complete spirituality.

Human is still finding the reason of its being and understanding what is best for him to do in life to fulfill the purpose of life. Till the time answer is accepted and followed, mankind is following certain rules of development defined by mankind. The rule of development i.e. win against another human is really dangerous which is followed by the world. The entire world is in race to be better against other human who has created competition, hate across the humanity. This race of becoming powerful or successful has created insecurity across humanity. Unless we come out of this race, there is no real security.

When we talk about datacenter security, there are three types of threats and challenges.

• Protecting data lost• Protecting system from unavailability • Protecting data from theft. First two kind of problems focuses on overall

data lost and system availability. For example, if there is fire, flood or any accident, it can create data lost and unavailability of services. If this act is done purposely it is called as DoS (Denial of Service). The best method to address both of these first two problems is distributed system architecture. The application and database should be distributed across multiple datacenters. The traffic of application should be handled by multiple datacenter simultaneously. If data is spread across multiple datacenter then even if anything goes wrong at one place or at one datacenter, data and system is available at other places. Backup using Object storage methodology at multiple datacenter also keeps data safe. CDN service is one of the best examples of this kind of solution.

The threat of data theft is always from two entities. One is from known sources and second is from unknown sources. The threat from known sources is always major as compare to unknown sources. Unknown sources are really not familiar with you or your data therefore threat from them can be protected using various tools. However the threat from known sources is always bigger as known sources always have full information about yourself, your data, and importance of that data and objective to damage. It is always important to identity the potential known sources

who can damage. Known sources are generally our employees, vendors, competitors and so on. The best way to protect from known sources is to make them ‘yours’ in real manner. Although it is not always possible to make everyone happy but efforts in that directions should be made consciously to tackle such human threat.

The problem from known sources is primarily of two types. One is physical theft of data and second is remotely theft of data. The probability of physical theft of data in cloud era or distributed system is really very less and would not be preferable way for any intruder. Therefore the remaining focused should be on mitigating virtual/remote data theft way. Remote data theft is done using tools. Although the rival is between humans however tools fight for human being. In Early years of the world, human used to fight with own organs directly however over the period of tools/weapons fights for human. Therefore to protect from tool attack, better tools are require. Certainly there are many tools available in market to protect various threats from other tools. The available tools like antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spamming, end point protections, application control change system and encryption and so

on.The problem of data theft happens at two

places - either in-transit or on stored data. The solutions can be different for different size of company. For example for small size of organizations, adopting available tools in market is best solution however for large and medium size organizations whose yearly expenditure is above 100 crore Rupees should be different. For mitigating the in-transit problems, the organization must adopt encryption. End to end encryption right from end user to data storage is good option. For stored data, the mid and large organization should really get their own protocol of storing data or database system developed. When there is complete enclosed system and others don’t have information about data representation, data value meaning, it would be difficult to theft data. Therefore own closed system is always better solutions for large and mid-size organization. We all know there are countries in the world who develop weapons, creates fear in the world and then sale weapons to others to protect. If this is possible with countries, there is possibility it can happen with security organizations as well.

Tools which can be used to mitigate against tools depend upon type of threat. However datacenter should start adopting system which are ‘inter communicable’ and based on deep learning, artificial intelligence. For example, if someone has deployed system of anti-virus, database activity monitoring, NDIS, IPS, end point protection, application control system, SIEM then all these system should have intelligence to talk to each other and pass-on threat messages to each other so that every protection system can act itself to protect all doors for intruder. Continuous monitoring of all activities using SIEM and application behavior monitoring system is important which can identify unusual activity and notify. Based on these unusual activities, security engineers should start investigating and protecting it. As conclusion of this, tools don’t require data, data is useful for mankind and therefore along with tools protections system, the focus should be how to protect root cause of insecurity. n


Israel ready to be the Cyber Security partner to IndiaThe Indian National Security Advisor

Najit Doval visited Israel on the 28th February 2017 to prepare and lay the groundwork for the Historic upcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel in early July 2017. This visit, the first ever by an Indian Prime Minster, will significantly mark 25 years of diplomatic ties between the two Nations.

In November 2016, Marc Kahlberg was a member of Israel’s President, Reuven Rivlin’s delegation that visited India for the first time in nearly 20 years and it signified the growing closeness of the two Nations.

Since the upgrade of the relations between India and Israel in 1992, the two countries have focused on agriculture and defense as a main focus. India is seen globally as an IT hub of excellence, so too Israel is seen as an expert in Cyber Security solutions and the upcoming visit by Prime Minister Modi will certainly have an important agenda of broad based Cyber security subject matter.

As Israel is ready and indeed has been assisting India with comprehensive and effective cyber security plans to counter and thwart threats from extremist groups, industrial hackers and cyber thieves, the opportunity will certainly arise to introduce some of the world’s most advanced cyber intelligence technologies, leveraging some of the world’s brightest and most qualified cyber and HLS security minds with an extensive infrastructure of hard earned experience.

Companies like Israel’s Vital Intelligence Group that understand, through such experience and practice, what it takes to minimize risk through Cyber Intelligence methods of predicative and proactive concepts fusing unique technology design and integration will assist in empowering Indian companies and certain government sectors with Vital Intelligence through partnerships and recently established

cooperative relations with some of India’s top companies.

On the eve of this historical visit by Prime Minister Modi to Israel and the fact that Israel is said to already be amongst the top military hardware suppliers to India, with more than $1 billion in annual sales to New Delhi according to the “Hindustan” newspaper, Prime Minister Modi will surely discuss both technological cooperation and indeed the threats and vulnerabilities that lie in the stealth but intriguing world of Cyber and Intelligence.

Close to 14 years has passed since the Al Qaida terror attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, 13 years, after possibly the worst single terror attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya, Israel, and 9 years after the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India where a series of coordinated terrorist events where carried out by 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant organization based in Pakistan, carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai.

The world witnesses mass carnage via terror and cyber threats and the influence of the media and more so the social media is so fast and so widely available today that reaction is simply a thing of the past. Today everyone lives the events that take place continents away in a live scenario. The world is at war, each with a different adversary who are committed to destroying each-others people, ways of life and freedom. The only difference today is that the borders are no longer physical, no longer relevant in many ways and each and every human being is vulnerable to a terror attack not only in the form of a vehicle ramming into innocent people anywhere on earth, as seen in Europe recently or a stabbing or suicide bombing attack but by a simple click of a button in the form of a Cyber Attack that has consequences that are so far reaching it must

and certainly will be one of the high level points of discussion between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

In the midst of these global conflicts, we all face the dual challenges of preventing terrorist attacks in any manner and any form, be it cyber carnage or physical destruction. In leveraging all possible resources to meet these obligations these two important and relevant leaders must make demands on their peers and those entrusted to protect their countries and engage in more innovational multinational proactive efforts of cooperation in the cyber security sphere and indeed turn the big data and mass amounts of information into actionable and credible intelligence.

In strengthening overall homeland security through cooperation between industries, foreign partnerships and initiatives that can be created by these two leaders, we all must be committed to assisting them in expanding and increasing our layers of defense, which extend well beyond our different borders, by seeking further cooperation with our international partners and admitting that as the free world tries to secure their Homelands, we cannot simply rely on defensive approaches and well-planned response and recovery measures.

It must be recognized and agreed that our combined efforts also must involve self –defensive methods in all aspects of the term. By deploying passive methods, policies and strategies against aggressors and offenders the criminals or enemy’s plans cannot be disrupted therefore the impact of future disasters through measures that enhance the resilience of economies and critical infrastructure before an incident occurs must be thwarted predictably and proactively.The writer, Marc Kahlberg is the

CEO and Managing Director of the VitalIntelligence Group Ltd

TECHNOMANIA


Canon keen to promote photo culture in India

In a chat with VARINDIA, Eddie Udagawa, Vice-President, Consumer Imaging & Information Centre, Canon, discusses about the company completing 20 years in India, camera market, its strategy and

roadmap

By delighting people for the last 20 years, Canon has come a long way in India. It has created its unique position in the market as well as in the hearts of customers. With its innovative product offerings especially in the camera segment, Canon has carved its niche in the market. According to Eddie Udagawa, Vice-President, Consumer Imaging & Information Centre, Canon, this success has been possible because of the love and support of the Indian consumers.

“I like to appreciate that we are celebrating 20 years here, but without the Indian people, customer support, we could not have survived. So at first I would like to thank everybody for the support and I hope for the next decades all the Indian people love and support Canon. In the past, of course at the beginning it was challenging. Canon India started its operation 20 years ago but camera wise the company started its journey in 2003. At that time, professional customers want to buy DSLR but the high-end and the customers who wanted to buy were price conscious. But since then we have started our journey in photography culture in India and all the middle standard is getting higher and people have moved on to photography which has helped our sale to grow higher,” says Eddie Udagawa.

Camera market These days, smartphone camera has captured

the market of compact cameras, but often people are not satisfied with the result of smartphone cameras and want to buy DSLRs. So Canon sees the potential in these people.

“Actually, the compact camera has been replaced by the smartphone camera. So Canon is trying to promote our high-end compact camera, DSLR and mirror-less camera. Though a lot of people use smartphone camera for capturing photos but then also customers are not so much satisfied with the results. Those people want to buy DSLR for capturing much better images. So that is our potential area of customers,” explains Eddie.

Further, Eddie adds, “Last year, we had a campaign comparing a smartphone photo with a DSLR. How high quality of photo customers can take by using DSLR so we want to promote this kind of comparison to understand how beautiful photos they can shoot. The entry-level DSLR is priced at Rs.29,999 which is right now within the purchasing power of the customers who are planning to buy DSLRs.”

Talking about the trend Eddie mentions that Canon is observing an increase in sales in entry-level cameras and last year the company witnesses a good demand of high-end cameras.

“In terms of quantity, the entry-level camera

sales are high. I was actually surprised with the last year’s sales results of 5D which is a high-end camera and was more than my expectation. Lots of people love high-end cameras also,” states Eddie.

StrategyTo strengthen its contact with customers,

Canon has kicked off a pan-India roadshow, where customers will have hands-on experience of the products and the company is targeting customer base of tier-3 and -4. Moreover, Canon is also following the strategy of NCU to CU.

“Taking this opportunity of 20th Anniversary, we have flagged off a roadshow to strengthen our contact with our customers. It has started from 10th of March. Customers will have hands-on experience of compact to entry-level to high-end DSLR cameras. It is a pan-India campaign where 60 cities will be covered throughout the year.

This year, our direction is NCU to CU which means Non-Camera Users to Camera Users and also it means Non-Canon Users to Canon Users. All the marketing activities that you see this year will either be following into creating a new customer base or to converting or upgrading people from other brands they are using. In this roadshow, we are targeting Tier-3 and Tier-4 cities because there is scope for new customer base. There is a market which gets stagnant at one particular point, we do not want that. We think there is a huge potential and scope for people to have a DSLR right now. So we are going to those markets, lay down our entire range,” discusses Eddie.

Canon wants to promote photo culture as it will increase camera sales. So to boost the

culture the company organizes Photo Marathon every year.

“We have several schemes to maintain the sales, but the important thing is we need to increase the contact with the customers by organizing workshops, roadshows and Canon Image Square (CIS). First, we want to promote photo culture and this will increase Canon sales. We have an event called Photo Marathon which happens every year in all South-East Asian countries. We have been doing it for eight years now. It is something like where you are not only supposed to get Canon camera you can get any brand camera, compact or a DSLR. It is a whole one-day- long contest.

As long as people are clicking, Canon cameras will be sold. So we are trying to seed in that particular photography culture. Secondly, we are the only imaging and printing company which can give you both. We are the only one who say we can give you input through an imaging device and can print through a printing device,” informs Eddie.

RoadmapCanon is aiming for a double-digit growth in

the camera segment. The company is optimistic to capture a lion’s share in the market.

“In the camera division, sales-wise we want to grow more than double digit compared with the last year. We are handling camera DSLR, compact, video and some selfie printer. Last year, we captured 50% market share already, according to import and export data. This year also we are aiming to achieve more than 50% market share,” concludes Eddie. n

[email protected]

Eddie UdagawaVice-President

Canon India

FACE TO FACE


COVER STORY

GST – A big game-changer for the economy

Touted as the biggest indirect tax reform since independence, GST would

subsume central excise, service tax and other local levies. GST, the need

for which is felt under the current indirect tax system, is expected to have a favourable outcome on the economy when rolled out in July.

The Rajya Sabha has recently passed four supplementary legislations which will purportedly enable the government to rollout the landmark Goods and Services Tax Bill on July 1. The four Bills are the Central Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017, the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017, the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017 and the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017. The Lok Sabha last month had

approved the Central GST (CGST), Integrated GST (IGST), Union Territory GST (UTGST) and the Compensation to states law.

Presently, a myriad of indirect taxes are levied in India without the ability to claim credit of such taxes by different persons that leads to a situation of cascading effect of taxes. Amongst others, with the introduction of GST, the cascading effect to a large extent should be addressed. Accordingly, it is expected that the GST regime would have a positive impact on the economy in the long run.

“GST shall provide the much needed stimulant for economic growth in India by ensuring the free flow of goods and services within the economy and also eliminating the cascading effect of different taxation. It might

“GST is a great step by Team India, great step

towards transformation. This can’t be seen as a victory of a party or

government, it is a win for the democratic ethos

of India. We say a lot about corruption but to eradicate corruption it is important to strengthen

our system as well,” PM Narendra Modi

“GST, in the days to come will ensure much larger revenues

as far as states and the central government is concerned and expands the size as far as the formal economy is concerned.

New indirect tax regime will make India one single market, eliminate multiple assessments, check evasion

and bring more revenues into the system. I am glad that

almost all state governments have actively co-operated in making this a reality,”

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.


also increase the administrative costs. One Nation, one Tax will enable abolishment of entry tax, LBT, Octroi etc. It will enable businesses to move into different geographies seamlessly. Also, with the introduction of electronic payment structure, it will ease the process of conducting business for IT companies,” says Sudip De Director - Doel International.

GST would provide tax credit to the manufacturer. Various tax barriers such as check posts and toll plazas lead to a lot of wastage for perishable items being transported, a loss that translated into major costs through higher need of buffer stocks and warehousing costs as well. A single taxation system could eliminate this roadblock for them. A single taxation on producers would also translate into a lower final selling price for the consumer. Also, there will be more transparency in the system as the customers would know exactly how much taxes they are being charged and on what base.

“Indeed, the end consumer is to benefit to a good extend. Trade across the states will

become simple with hassle free documentation. Indirect benefits of not needing a branch/warehouse for local taxation advantage is a cost benefit. E-commerce commercials / logistics will be at the best with uniform taxation. The GST % can be kept at lower side, since we are in the beginning of the digital money era, the

price advantage can increase affordability and usage,” says T. Jayakumar, Director - Touchline Technologies.

However, currently services attract 15 per cent service tax (including cesses). This is likely to increase to 18 per cent under GST. This means there will be additional working capital requirements to manage the cash flows for the period between invoicing and payment realization.

“Quantitatively, experts are of the opinion that the GDP is expected to rise by 1% to 2%. However, in the short run, it is expected to be disruptive due to transition issues while migrating into the new regime,” reiterates Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director at Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT).

Impact of GST on the IT industry …..According to Alok Dubey, CFO, Acer

India, considering the overall IT industry, there is not any major impact seen on the goods as the proposed rate of 12% and 18% is almost

Rushabh Shah, President - Trade Association of Information Technology (TAIT)

“When the GST bill finally rolls out on July 1 this year, it will transform the system of taxation in India by replacing all indirect taxes levied on goods and services by the Indian Central and state governments. Although GST has been touted as a simplified and easier tax regime, which it is, but all sectors are bracing up for a few surprises also. The entire concept of availment of input tax credit is all set to change.”

Nimish Goel, Head Indirect Tax Practice and GST, International Business Advisors

“GST should bring additional business opportunities to a large IT companies. Software and ERP development companies stand to gain the most since every company now need to overhaul its existing IT/ERP system. Additionally, the GST Council has also come up with the concept of GST Suvidha Providers (‘GSP’) who will act as mediators between taxpayers and Government.”

Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director at Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT)

“The revised Model GST law contains enabling provisions for anti-profiteering in order to ensure that the additional benefit available to industry inter alia on account of removal of cascading effect of taxes, rate of GST, etc, are passed on to the end consumer. The same would have a huge impact on the industry at large as they would be duty bound to ensure that the benefits on account of GST is passed on to the end consumer.”

Gopal Pansari Director - Savera Digital India

“There is no immediate impact of the GST bill as everything depends on the final GST bill that will be implemented. The most important impact will be that the IT distributors need to change their distribution model to take most out of new structure. Channel managers and sales executives will be hearing less conflict issues due to price differences caused by local taxes.”

Sanjay Joshi Country Manager at Edimax India &

Sub Continent

“It’s great that now all taxes would come under a single scheme. GST is intended to move all indirect taxes but it may create a problem in trade and commerce for the manufacturers who are manufacturing in different parts of the nation. But indeed it will surely bring transparency in the business and for the customers which will, in turn, eliminate corruption.”


the same of the combined rate of Duty and local VAT; however, the services are getting pushed to 18% seems to be more expensive. “The foremost impact would be on software exporters, as most of the companies are engaged in export of software and having very negligible domestic sales. The present rate of service tax on the input services availed by these companies is presently levied at 15% is now proposed to levy at 18% under GST and the biggest challenge is utilization of unutilized GST credits. Even though in the proposed draft GST law automatic refund of 80% amount is granted when claim is submitted but it shall affect the Company’s Cash Flow. Further, the cost of compliance may increase due to requirement of separate registration under model GST Law for the Service providers as against the centralized registration and compliance under the present law. The industry still hopes that the new law shall allow easy transfers of service tax credits from one state to another.”

Pulkit Punj, Director, AnG India has also been of a similar opinion. “I believe that the multiple registration GST model will affect the internal business of the IT industry. Also, the industry has been discussing about the challenges of this new law model as it could leads to increase the complexities in the industry and the process as well.”

With GST on the cards, players in the IT industry are streamlining their existing system of distribution and retail marketing, and are also reworking their channel strategy, preparing cash flows, etc. Distributors in the IT industry are, on the other hand, keeping a check on their stocks, are downsizing their inventories, and are also putting their accounting system in place.

“As we move towards one nation, one tax, IT companies with operations in multiple

cities will probably have one physical branch to handle billing in different states. Invoices in this sector are reconciled only after the payments are made for transactions that are complete, but with GST, recording every invoice will be the responsibility of IT companies. The input-tax credit can be a pain point for the SME sector though. Software is at present taxed twice in India--service tax and VAT. As a case

in point, in the state of Maharashtra, total tax on software is 15 per cent as paper license or service tax and 6 per cent as value added tax, or VAT, which adds up to around 21 per cent on base rate. Post GST, this will come down to 18 per cent. Essentially, small is not always beautiful from GST's prism because below a threshold IT companies do not get the benefit of the input,” explains Rushabh Shah, President - Trade Association of Information Technology (TAIT).

According to Gopal Pansari Director at Savera Digital India, in order to accelerate digitization, GST seems to be a pronounced tax

reform which will now follow destination based tax structure instead of origin based. “GST will surely reduce the average tax rate. By registering for all the states we are catering to, we expect ease in the business processes. Our business will surely be benefited as it will help in eliminating the spurt effects of the present tax structure and will allow free flow of goods and services within our country.”

Similar views are also of Sanjay Joshi Country Manager - Edimax India & Sub Continent, who feels that GST is a biggest game changer and reforms India’s indirect tax structure. “The amalgamation and comprehensive tax structure introduced will surely help in boosting GDP. The Introduction of GSTN enabled software’s and new methods of electronic payments will surely help in carrying out the business process with accuracy, speediness and seamlessness. Services sector in India is a rapidly growing and significantly contributing sector to fiscal revenues.”

“Unlike the product market, IT industry taps

Sudhir SinghManaging Director, Marg Compusoft

“A common market would be created across the nation. It will create a level playing field for all. The digitization and clarity of laws will bring transparency which will create ease of doing business.”

Sudip DeDirector - Doel International

“GST would provide tax credit to the manufacturer. Various tax barriers such as check posts and toll plazas lead to a lot of wastage for perishable items being transported, a loss that translated into major costs through higher need of buffer stocks and warehousing costs as well. A single taxation system could eliminate this roadblock for them. A single taxation on producers would also translate into a lower final selling price for the consumer.”

Pulkit PunjDirector - AnG India

“Some provisions of the constitutional amendment bill on the goods GST could undermine the competitiveness of India’s IT industry and have the potential to spark disputes and litigation. I consider that complex billing and invoicing requirements due to supply and valuable provision of the GST could complicate the taxation procedure for our industry. Currently, we are governed by single regime but new complex GST bill will give a huge impact on our industry.”

Alok DubeyCFO - Acer India

“With the adoption of GST there is a huge scope to address tax policy and compliance. The law, giving enough incentive for companies to declare transaction in order to claim tax credits will reduce overall tax evasion. Businesses will have only State and Central GST Departments to deal with instead of variety of state and central departments-bringing down- hopefully, disputes, litigation and cost of compliance.”

COVER STORY


Sanjeev GulatiCountry Manager-India & SAARC -

VIVOTEK

“For IT software currently attracts different levels of tax. Under GST this dual taxation and cascading effect would reduce significantly and the benefits could accrue to end user in the form of lower prices.”

T. JayakumarDirector - Touchline Technologies

“With GST, consumer states will Rule The Roost and overall development will be higher in those states. The GST % can be kept at lower side, since we are in the beginning of the digital money era, the price advantage can increase affordability and usage.”

Aniketh JainCEO & Co-Founder - Solutions Infini

“The Centralised GST system can be beneficial to companies providing services from a unified location. However, there are numerous provisions that can impact the industry at large – eliminating multiple levies for IT Companies, free flow of goods across the country, increased opportunity for Vendors, double Taxation elimination, and so on.”

on their services. In the present scenario, IGST, CGST and SGST are in decentralized place varying as per the location. Through the unified centralized format, it becomes easy for the regulatory authorities to maintain an easy track of where the incoming claims are from. This ensures transparency for the service receivers as to what exactly they are paying their taxes for. One centralized platform also ensures that the decentralized compliances get accurate tracking. Through the centralized system, the service providers can now be able to provide at a final lower selling price to the service receiver,” views Aniketh Jain, CEO & Co-Founder of Solutions Infini.

The creation of uniform market across the country will make doing business in multiple sates easy. Elimination of multiple levies for IT companies and creation of a uniform tax system across the nation will cause deeper penetration of digital services. “IT service providers would be able to set-off input GST on purchase of Goods required for setting up the necessary IT infrastructure with their GST output liabilities. This may lower the prices of IT services and benefit the end user in long run. The compliance has become a lot easier. Laws are not that ambiguous,” points out Sudhir Singh, Managing Director, Marg Compusoft.

“GST, with the Uniformity of tax rates and structures and all tax payer services would be available to the taxpayers online, which would

make compliance easy and transparent for business owner. This transparent indirect tax regime is widely expected to accelerate overall growth of GDP in India; this may create benefits of spin off for IT business,” asserts Sanjeev Gulati, Country Manager-India & SAARC -VIVOTEK.

“With the GST coming in, we may see certain changes in the IT industry where the taxation structure on companies like ours will get rationalized. Presently, companies are paying two types of taxes one being the service tax and the other is the VAT. Once GST is rolled out, we believe that this issue will be resolved and a single tax will be applied. This will help significantly in reducing compliance effort and costs,” says Girish Rowjee- Co-founder &CEO, Greytip Software.

There is a significant push from the Government to move to a less-cash economy resulting in a lot of physical transactions moving online. In order for this to happen,

IT companies would need to play a pivotal role in creating new and innovative solutions. Additionally, the Government will want to incentivize both IT companies and consumers in this process. For all the above reasons, the introduction of GST will lower tax rates for the IT and Software industry and enabling adoption due to reduced cost of software.

Putting across similar views, Niraj Hutheesing is the Founder and Director - Cygnet Infotech says, “What is seen as a setback for tax-payers due to complete digitization, this move by Government is to eradicate the cascading tax policy and smoothen the tax-structure with a flat system. Software and services sector face a major challenge of setting up huge datacenter

to cater to the huge chunk of data, best in-class IT infrastructure, eminent knowledge pool and skill set to develop intuitive software solutions, closely working with chartered accountants – learning the ropes for financial systems, in-depth know how of financial world and taxation and lot more.”

"GST is really great and it has greatest benefits that it is built ground up as a technology-enabled-tax-system which allows for extraordinary traceability. Being technology led, it has the potential to spiral upwards the trust deficit, rather than spiral downwards. However, one of the major drawback or the most critical cause of potential failure of GST will be in the transference of responsibility of tax compliance and remittance to the customers to make them eligible for input credit," opines Bharat Goenka, Co-Founder & MD - Tally Solutions.

Limitations still persist…The passage of the GST bill will

unquestionably usher in the most impactful tax reform; however, there are few limitations to it.

Like for instance, as Alok points out, the draft law is yet to give full clarity on transition provisions. “Especially for trading community, there may be loss of credit contained in inventory in hand to the extent of excise / customs duty paid thereon. Unless an effective credit is allowed, the economic activity across trade leading upto the July 01 shall be rather slow as traders shall minimize their stocks. For the IT hardware industry the free spare parts replacement under warranty may require double /multiple GST payment as the new GST law fails to clarify the position yet,” says Alok.

“The Government is still deliberating on the mechanism to be adopted to perpetuate “Make in India” under the GST and no concrete framework has put together in this regard. In order to reduce the import burden it is essential that the ‘Make in India’ scheme be extended to all ITA goods, specifically to notebooks, desktops, servers and storage. Possible recommendation for continuation of duty differential scheme


existing companies cannot change their sourcing or distribution strategy, they will find it difficult to take proper advantage of input credit. In the current taxation system, input credit is available on tax invoice however with the implementation of GST; input credit will depend on filing of the returns by the vendor on time. It would be really difficult to deal with small suppliers and large companies may avoid dealing with small suppliers to reduce the risk,” says Girish.

“Multiple slabs of taxes are not as expected. The way bureaucracy is involved in most of the things, it seems the Red-Tapism is not going to be reduced. The lack of unity amongst different departments is also a matter of concern,” opines Sudhir.

Compliances under the GST shall increase multifold typically for those companies that have multiple offices in India and from where

services are supplied to the customers. This is because each and every office that is engaged in supplying a taxable service shall be required to be registered separately under GST. This is unlike the current scenario where all offices could be combined together and registered under a centralized system for service tax. Separate registrations shall mean maintaining separate books of accounts, separate payment of taxes and filing multiple returns. All this is going to increase the cost of IT companies drastically.

Nimish points out that the challenge shall be

Niraj Hutheesing Founder and Director - Cygnet Infotech

Pvt. Ltd.

“The biggest implication of GST on IT is industry is – Tons of new business! GST is a bigger wave than Y2K problem. When in Y2K the 4-digit was resolved easily with a 2-digit replacement, GST is a SEA-CHANGE! While Y2K bug impacted the entire IT system, GST implementation will impact all ERP systems for all clients active within the GST network. Implementing IT in GST will make faster and speedier refunds for exporters - a less bureaucratic way of working and remove the need for taking multiple different registrations under VAT, Excise and Service tax.”

Girish RowjeeCo-founder & CEO, Greytip Software

“Implementation of GST will be a big relief for the industry at large by providing ease of doing business. Presently industry has to pay various taxes on a single product which consists Central taxes such as Central Excise duty, Additional Excise duty, Service tax, Additional Custom duty and Special Additional duty as well as state-level taxes such as VAT or Sales tax, Central Sales tax, Entertainment tax, Entry tax, Purchase tax, Luxury tax and Octroi. These taxes will subsume in GST which will help in reducing administrative work involved for compliance under different laws.”

under GST,” suggests Anwar. “A negative list of ITA goods is introduced on import of which (for trading) no credit of CGST portion of IGST would be permissible. Additionally, benefit of upfront exemption from levy of CGST be provided on the goods manufactured in India; or the benefit may be extended by way of a refund mechanism wherein refund of CGST would be available to manufacturers.”

According to Pulkit, the new multiple registration GST model is costlier and it’s the biggest disadvantage as well as challenge for us. “If I talk about current service tax in India is 15% but due to proposed GST, it’s about 18%-20%. According to me previous (single regime) GST model was much better and simple for us.”

Says Aniketh, “It can be substantially challenging for the legal system to get the centralized platform into execution. The process like any other is complex and time consuming. It’s also challenging to the system to get approval from 15 states once the Constitution Amendment Bill is passed by the Parliament.”

The current taxation system has clearly defined the powers of state and center in terms of levy and administration of taxes. As the GST will have a dual control model and being introduced as a new law, there is expected to be more litigation in terms of jurisdiction of state and center for interstate transactions. “The place of supply provision will require registration in more state, if the delivery is made through offices located at different places. Currently the law is very clear in terms of input tax credit process and most of the companies are aligned with the current system. Going forward, if the

to issue multiple invoices. “This is a paradigm shift from the way IT companies operate currently with a single registration and filing of two returns annually. Under GST the no. of returns to be filed for each registered office shall be 37 per annum.”

He further says that e-commerce companies

(that are not engaged as mere aggregators) and undertaking millions of transactions shall be required to deduct 'tax collection at source' (TCS) on all supplies made by the vendors through their websites. “This means a very strong and a robust monitoring of the transactions to ensure every supply is subject to TCS. This definitely means making the IT system capable of recording each and every transaction on a timely basis to ensure correct adherence to the law.” n


Bharat GoenkaCo-Founder & MD - Tally Solutions

"With the framing of this law, the Government hopes that the market will self-weed out the bad eggs. While in theory this is fine, not understanding the cascading consequences of doing this in practice, and the mayhem it will create is an alarming concern."

Presently, a myriad of indirect taxes are

levied in India without the ability to claim

credit of such taxes by different persons that

leads to a situation of cascading effect of

taxes. Amongst others, with the introduction of GST, the cascading

effect to a large extent should be addressed

COVER STORY


LG speakers – Giving a new definition to Home EntertainmentThe latest music gadgets from LG are the speakers. They have been

developed in such a way that they deliver an unparalleled audio experience for the user. The portability of the X Boom Handy Speakers with the telescoping handle makes them a great choice for youngsters who love to grab their gadgets and go. The enhanced acoustics and versatile shape makes it a great hit amongst music lovers. The chargeable battery feature ensures a long-lasting music session along with a special Karaoke feature for people who love to sing. You will also be able to charge your phones using this speaker. The wireless connectivity of this speaker truly makes it a high-tech gadget that is a must have for all music lovers.

The OM4560 adds to the excitement of the party with its powerful amplifier that includes a 2500W PMPO output. This sound system is developed for music lovers around the globe. Users can download the Music Flow Bluetooth app to enhance the functionality of the speakers. The Music Flow Bluetooth is more than just a remote; it simplifies listening and unites everything music into easy-to-use app. The sound sync feature allows users to simply link their LG audio product with a compatible LG HDTV wirelessly via Bluetooth, reducing the cable clutter behind/beneath your TV. If you shake the smart Device (Mobile Phone etc.), the Connection will disconnect from the Speakers and will switch to the Smart Device. This technology enhances usability and makes your gadgets convenient to use.

LG has always tried to give a new definition to home entertainment. It has been offering a number of options with the ultimate blend of design and performance. The LG new sound bar SH5 is hassle free to use as the sound starts the moment you send audio to it till then the bar sleeps; when audio is sent via Bluetooth the bar unit wakes up and plays through integrated Wireless connectivity (Bluetooth), you can free yourself from messy wires and stay connected. You don’t have to change the function of the speaker when you are changing your content. The bar comes along with a wireless subwoofer which enhances the sounds from your favorite TV shows, motion pictures, games etc. These compact audio devices rock your homes with a thrilling sound of 320W, while bringing a beautiful addition to your home décor. LG's differentiated voice enhancing technology actively analyzes the vocal levels in real time. When it senses high vocal levels, it automatically lowers the bass power to make dialogue crystal-clear. The auto sound engine feature optimizes the audio at every volume level keeping the frequencies accurate in the right places. This delivers the correct sound balance no matter the sound volume. Also, the sound starts the moment you send audio to it. The bar sleeps but when audio is sent via Bluetooth the unit wakes and plays.

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GST to help government run a legitimate economy

Alike VAT, Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a new kind of indirect tax merging some of the existing taxes to a single tax. Trade across

state and tax on tax are the two major reasons that have triggered the government to introduce this new type of law, GST. With its introduction in India it is expected that the burden of tax will become less.

“More noise has been made about GST theoretically than necessary. It is a new kind of Tax but when we actually read the law, we understand the situation. The government is very clear about it and there are two major reasons behind introducing GST; first, trade across state is very difficult and second tax on tax happens as at centre there is tax on certain things and state tax on certain things - Centre tax on Excise and Service tax and state tax on VAT. If you are manufacturing then one has to pay excise tax and then again VAT on excise tax. This means the charge of the tax is little bit more. With GST the expectation is that a manufacturer will charge GST and others will also charge GST but there one needs to pay tax only on the value addition. So the tax on tax is removed. Secondly, the trade between states should become easier,” says Tejas Goenka, Executive Director at Tally Solutions.

Technology & GSTIn today’s world everything is being done with the help of technology.

Similarly, GST is also driven by technology. The concept behind GST is invoice matching. It is expected that this system of invoice matching will reduce the fraud in taxes.

“The world has moved into technology at a faster pace in last 10 years. The large big change was the intent behind VAT which is also a technology driven law but at that time one could not imagine what kind of technology was needed. During budget, Finance Minister said that if you look at demonetization then people will start recognizing where the money is. Only 5-6% tax is being paid by the people which is less than what they are supposed to pay and there are simple ways to get over it. So GST has introduced a concept of invoice matching. The concept is very simple, if I sell a handset to you then will give you an invoice and suppose the cost of the handset is Rs 10,000 and assume that GST will be 20% so Rs 2000 of tax you have to pay me. The government does not want to know the total sales and purchase of the month, it only wants to see the invoice that you have paid Rs 10000 plus Rs 2000 of GST to me. When the invoice is accepted or rejected by you then the government is sure that both parties are agreeing who has to pay what tax. Here the fraud that happens in tax will reduce. The system of invoice matching that is expected to help the government make sure that the economy becomes a legitimate economy,” explains Tejas.

How GST worksThe government is asking to book the sales and purchases of every

month which makes easy to calculate the tax liability. “In GST, government is trying to say that please upload all your sales

either everyday or on 10th of every month. The moment I upload all my sales, the only thing need to do is accept the entire amount that I have sold to you. All my sales become your purchase, you can accept the purchases or decline or modify it. Now every transaction will either have acceptance, rejection or a modification. If I have to do this on 10th of every month then it cannot be done without technology. For me I am just building a system with GST which will basically match invoices and therefore yours

In a chat with VARINDIA, Tejas Goenka, Executive Director at Tally Solutions has vividly described GST, reasons behind its introduction, the technology that is embedded in the new

tax format, mechanism of GST and compliance of Tally with all the industry segments

and mine tax liability will automatically be calculated. All you have to do is pay and sign,” states Tejas.

As GST is based on invoice matching it is impossible without technology. So, for that government is encouraging the portal based system build on API system. The APIs will be connected to accounting software and work becomes easy.

“The reason why GST is important is actually the whole law is based on the concept of invoice matching and it is impossible to do it without technology. According to government, if you are selling a phone please upload that invoice and if you are uploading that invoice you cannot be entering it in your Tally or excel sheet and cannot be then entering it into government portal and upload it. So please enter it into one place and from there itself you should be able to upload. Typically the government is pushing the portal based system. And with GST, they are very clear and building this API based system. Now the APIs will connect the accounting application in which you are doing entries and it will then allow the business to operate much easier. Whatever the transaction entries that took place, it will automatically showup at the backend of GST. Our role is we provide accounting software and you use Tally for invoices and Tally is already connected to GSTN. Therefore your work becomes much easier,” he adds.

Tally compliant with marketTally as an accounting software is compliant with every business. A

FACE TO FACE


major portion of the market use Tally as their accounting software. With time people are looking for specific solutions so the company has to focus on that.

“If you look at the number of business that needs to be compliant, businesses that are automated, 80-90% of the market is ours from an accounting point of view. The focus has to be, if I look at the next few years, people are asking for more specific solutions for them and they want them out of the box. There are some specific industries that are unique like retail. We have POS billing but we are not the preferred brand for many people. But the market is also very small if you want to go vertical specific,” says Tejas.

Tally will remain a horizontal player and will also focus on some the specific segments. It observes that retail is a segment with immense potential in coming years. The company will also put in its efforts into it.

“We will definitely believe that we will remain a horizontal player for long time and we will take select segments and focus on them. We think retail has a potential to become very large. Even though the amount of sales today are very low but the moment you go with the next 3-4 years and the effort that the government is making like to get digitized, cashless people will want something which will work in less time. And to get there is what we need to put our effort into,” adds Tejas.

Channel PartnersTally has a huge partner base across India and they contribute a major

portion to the company’s total revenue. “Partners play a very important role for us. If we consider the entire

revenue of the company as 100% then 95% of the revenue is contributed by the Partners on the books. Actually 99% is contributed by Partners. Very few people go to our website and buy the software. We have over 25,000 partners,” asserts Tejas.

Tally- Aspiring to be a global brandTejas aims to serve people by helping the entrepreneurs across the

world. He is also hopeful that Tally in coming years will no longer be an Indian brand but a global brand. The company is constantly investing in few countries like Middle-East, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia etc.

“The reason I joined the business is that there are 7 billion people in the world today, there are probably about 150 million entrepreneurs in the world today, after 10-15 years the number of entrepreneurs will increase and you can serve 7 billion people through them. It is basically like how much of a positive impact you can have on the world sitting out of India. I think in next 15-20 years, Tally will no longer be an Indian brand and become a global brand. For last few years we have put our investment into Middle-East specifically UAE, Saudi, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait. We have our office in Nairobi also which we started two years ago. We operate out of Bangladesh and Nepal but it is more for India. We have also deputed people in Indonesia,” concludes Tejas. n

Trend Micro’s Raimund Genes passes away

It is with great sadness that Trend Micro and its 5,500 employees around the globe have learned about the death of Raimund Genes, Chief Technology Officer for Trend Micro. Genes, aged 54, died unexpectedly of heart attack on 24th March, at his family home in Germany.

“It is with a heavy heart that I have to inform you about the incalculable loss of our dear friend and colleague Raimund Genes,” said Eva Chen, Chief Executive Officer for Trend Micro, in a note to all the employees. “We are shocked and heartbroken. Raimund was an exceptional human being and a great leader. He was a confidant and friend and our heart goes out to his family.”

Raimund Genes was an integral part of Trend Micro during the last 21 years, building up the Trend Micro organization in Germany and Europe and serving as chief technology officer and an important public voice for the company.

“Trend Micro and the entire security industry have lost an exceptional visionary and a wonderful human being. Raimund’s talent, knowledge, passion and great sense of humour will be truly missed,” said Jenny and Steve Chang, Co-Founders of Trend Micro. “Raimund was well known in the industry for his security knowledge, and he enjoyed using vibrant examples to educate audiences about the need for cybersecurity. As an integral part of our executive team, we highly appreciated his ambition to constantly challenge himself and the organization. His drive for continuous improvement and his remarkable talent sparked the passion of security of others. He was a great mentor to so many Trend Micro employees.”

Raimund Genes gained a wealth of security expertise and experience over the course of his 30-year career. Originally a distributor for Trend Micro with his own business, he founded Trend Micro Deutschland GmbH, Trend Micro’s subsidiary in Germany in 1996.


VAR MOBILITY

Samsung ties up with Amazon India over Galaxy C7 Pro

Samsung has come up with its latest smartphone Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro.

It will be exclusively available sold on Amazon India.

Galaxy C7 Pro packs in powerful features in a premium slim design at 7mm to give consumer a comfortable grip. The device is crafted with a full metal unibody and a 2.5D Gorilla Glass that make it very durable. Galaxy C7 Pro also sports a 5.7” FHD Super AMOLED display that provides an immersive and enriching viewing experience.

Galaxy C7 Pro comes equipped with a powerful 2.2 GHz octa-core processor and 4 GB RAM. The smartphone has an inbuilt

memory of 64 GB which is expandable to 256 GB, so consumers have enough space to store their favourite pictures, movies or songs.

“Galaxy C7 Pro is a slim and stunning device, which comes packed with powerful features for unparalleled multitasking and multimedia experience making it a Lean and Mean machine for the millennials,” said Sandeep Singh Arora, Vice President, Online Business, Samsung India.

Galaxy C7 Pro also has a powerful 3,300mAh battery, with fast charging capabilities to charge the phone completely in just 100 min.

Galaxy C7 Pro features a 16 MP rear camera as well as a 16 MP front camera both with an f1.9 aperture lens for taking great pictures even

in low light conditions. The rear camera comes equipped with Phase Detection Auto-Focus and Dual LED flash features, which allow users to capture clear and bright photographs. The front camera offers an upgraded selfie experience with its pre-installed beautifying effects. The floating camera button in Galaxy C7 Pro enables users to take the best shots at ease with single hand.

Galaxy C7 Pro will be available in two

colour options - Navy Blue and Gold. The device will be priced at Rs 27,990 and will retail exclusively on Amazon.in from April 11, 2017.

“We are pleased to be the partner of choice for Samsung and offer our customers a chance to own the exclusive access to Galaxy C7 Pro,” said Arun Srinivasan, Director, Consumer Electronics (Category Management), Amazon India. n


VAR MOBILITY

4G connections to reach 41% by 2020

Mobile broadband connection globally (3G and 4G) accounted for

55% of total connection in 2016 to 75% by connection base in 2020. On the other hand 5G is forecast to cover around a third of the global population by 2025, with adoption reaching one 1.1 billion connections.

Total mobile revenues reached $1.05 trillion in 2016, up 2.2% on 2015, making the second consecutive year of rising revenue growth thanks to digital platform. Operators are creating digital platform connects everyone and everything. Players across the broader mobile ecosystem have already opened open innovative strategies particularly in the app economy and the mobile internet.

In 2016, mobile economy generated 4.4% of GDP globally, equivalent to around $3.3

trillion of economic value. Mobile ecosystem has also supported approximately 28 million jobs.

Mobile broadband networks continues to gain momentum and is driven by improved coverage of higher speed networks, attractively priced data tariffs and greater availability and affordability of smartphones. At the and 2014 mobile

broadband connections accounted for 25% of total connection (excluding M2M). This increased to 55% by the end of 2016, with 4 billion mobile broadband connections.

An additional 2.3 billion mobile connection are forecast between 2016 and 2020. 4G now reaches 60% of the population up from 50% in 2015 and 11% in 2012. In

developing world, 50% of the population is covered by 4G which is expected to increase to almost 70% by 2020. In developed world, the coverage is at 93% of the population which is expected to improve to 95% by 2020.

The first commercial 5G cellular networks will launch in late 2019 and early 2020. These networks will be built on evolved LTE (Release 15) and will offer increased performance. 5G’s second phase based on LTE release 16, will deliver mobile data over mmw frequencies in facilitating a massive increase in bandwidth potential. 5G connections (excluding cellular M2M) are anticipated to reach 1.1 billion by 2025. n


4G globally is planned to double from present 23% to reach 41% by 2020


VAR MOBILITY

OPPO unveils F3 Plus Smartphone

Vivo to offer V5Plus Smartphone

Lava unveils Z Series Smartphones – Z25 and Z10

Micromax unveils Dual 5 SmartphoneMicromax has

launched its smartphone – Dual 5. The company aims to achieve a 10% market share of the premium smartphone category (INR20K+) in the year 2017.

Micromax Dual 5 features a metal body on edges. With the Arc design, the phone is more seamless. It is equipped with stereoscopic multi-antenna added within body that helps in enhancing the signals. It comes with an intensified camera system. The device consists of Wisdom Double Photo 2.0, two cameras – Black & White with an ordinary camera three times the amount of light. The device boasts 13MP+13MP Dual Rear Camera and 13MP Front Camera with flash. It is fully equipped with Dual Camera capabilities that automatically combine depth of field and focus to capture DSLR quality images. The Micromax Dual 5 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 and faster memory for quicker system performance that is 933MHz. The device is LTE-enabled and integrated graphics with 64-bit processor. It comes with 128GB ROM and 3,200mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 and Power Saving Mode.

The new Dual 5 takes the smartphone security and privacy to the next level as it comes with the same EAL 5+ security as a bank card, which is much more secure than the EAL 2+ security featured in other smartphones. The device comes with Unique Fingerprint with a quick response time of 0.35 second and is equipped with a separate security chip to provide independent storage for your fingerprint and password information.

OPPO has launched F3 Plus. The F3

Plus features the brand’s first dual-front camera, including 120-degree wide-angle Group Selfie Camera. The F3 Plus First Sale begins from 1st April, 2017 across India. It will also be available in OPPO online stores on Flipkart, A m a z o n a n d Snapdea l . The pre-o r d e r s t a r t s f r o m now till 31st March, 2017.

O P P O ’s New Brand A m b a s s a d o r , – D e e p i k a P a d u k o n e and renowned photographer – Dabboo Ratnani also shared their own selfie experience with OPPO F3 Plus.

OPPO F3 Plus delivers great selfie photos through the revolutionary dual selfie front cameras: a 16-megapixel camera for

selfie and a 120-degree wide-angle lens for group selfie. The rear camera is co-developed with Sony, equipped with a customized IMX398 sensor for serious photography. The F3 Plus is a high-end smartphone that is efficient, long-lasting, secure and beautiful.

“OPPO is an industry leader in the Selfie

Revolution with the recent “Selfie

Experts” F-series. Our brand has

been growing rapidly across

S o u t h e a s t Asia and

o t h e r regions a r o un d

the world. As per the GFK data,

we became the No. 2 smartphone brand in the Indian offline market last year. The dual selfie camera F3 Plus marks a new ‘Group Selfie’ trend, and reinforces our position as the Selfie Expert,” said Sky Li, Global VP & President of OPPO India.

Vivo has entered into exclusive

partnership with Flipkart for online sale of limited edition Vivo V5Plus smartphone. The phone that sports an 18-carat VIVOIPL logo engraved at the back was announced by Vivo in Hyderabad on April 4, 2017 to celebrate the ten glorious years of IPL.

The Vivo V5Plus special edition phones will go for sale from 10th April, 2017 on Flipkart at a price of Rs.25,990.

Vivek Zhang, CMO, Vivo India, said, “We are pleased to announce our exclusive partnership with Flipkart to offer limited edition Vivo V5Plus smartphone. With this partnership, we aim to use the exclusive online market. Today, one cannot ignore the power of online medium and through this association we want to give a chance and comfort

to consumers across both mediums to own this exclusive product.

Vivo V5Plus is presently available in gold colour. The device created ripples in the market with its amazing first-ever 20MP dual-front camera that captures the depth of field, thus allowing customers to click perfect selfies. The dual lenses of the device, i.e. 20MP and 8MP, create sharpness on the face while creating a beautifully blurred background which is enhanced by digital optical algorithm to generate an amazing Bokeh effect.

LAVA has launched “Z Series” of

smartphones – Z25 and Z10. These smartphones mark the entry of Lava in the premium smartphone category and are testimony to the company’s renewed focus and investment towards in-house design, quality, manufacturing and supply chain.

Add i t i ona l l y, Lava Z25 sports a fingerprint sensor which lets users unlock the phone in 0.16 seconds. Priced at Rs.18,000/- and Rs.11,500/-, respectively, Lava Z25 and Lava Z10 will be available in select retail stores in Delhi from March 23, 2017. The phones will be available in other cities in a few weeks’ time.

Lava Z25 flaunts 13.97 cm (5.5”) HD IPS Display and Lava Z10 features 12.7 cm (5.0”) Display. Both the phones,

with their 2.5D curved HD IPS display, creates an ergonomic, compact design that fits in the users’ hands, thus enabling single-handed functionality of the phones.

Lava Z25 and Z10

are powered by an Octa-Core Processor, and are supported by 4GB and 2GB, RAM respectively. Lava Z25 and Z10 also offer wide storage for music, videos, pictures and applications with 32GB and 16GB ROM, respectively.

Sony launches Xperia XZs Smartphone

Sony India has launched its

smartphone – Xperia XZs. Bundled with innovative offerings, this flagship device is integrated with Motion Eye Camera. It is packed with Super Slow Motion video recording at 960 FPS in a smartphone and a unique capturing technique of Predictive Capture.

The Xperia XZs is the successor of Xperia XZ which was launched last year, with world’s 5 Axis Image Stabilization and triple imaging sensor technology. The Xperia XZs comes with Motion Eye camera on top of the existing camera tech introduced with XZ series. This Motion Eye camera makes XZs camera capable of recording images at a Super Slow Motion of 960

Frames per second. The Xperia XZs is

powered with the Motion Eye camera that comes with a built-in memory

within an image sensor. This unique feature is capable of processing each image five times faster and improves low-light images by reducing the noise by around 50%.


Konnect Insights helps build brand image in digital media

In a chat with VARINDIA, Sameer Narkar, Director & Chief Software Architect of Konnect Insights, talks about the big-data analytics product – Konnect Insights, advantages

of the product, the go-to-market strategy and also about the vision of the company.

Kindly brief us about your offering.

Konnect Insights is a big-data analytics product used for Social Listening and Market Research. It is used by many top brands to understand conversations all over the web. It gives detailed reports on how you are faring vs your competition in the industry based on online conversations on blogs, forums, mainstream news and social media.

How it will be helpful for your customers to grow?

Online conversations have an impact on how your brand is being perceived. Brand managers make sure that people are not talking negative about the brand and if they are they try to understand the reason and offer a proper solution. They also want to pick up positive mentions of the brand to help the brand advocacy. Listening hence becomes the key.

The insights help them understand how their Social Media channels are performing and they can compare them with their competitors. To sum it up, Konnect Insights helps brand in their digital media presence and give insights about their audience and customers. This will, in turn, help the brand to formulate marketing strategies. Listening to conversations around your brand will help you understand the customer’s mind-set, reviews, etc. Using

Response Management system will help brands respond to customers/leads effectively and address their concerns. Many telecom and BFSI companies are benefiting using Konnect Insights because they have substantially reduced the cost on customer care.

What are your target segments?We have our clients from automobile,

telecom, BFSI, entertainment, IT and pharma. We want to add more clients in these segments.

What is your go-to-market strategy? Who are your competitors?

Most of our business is using digital marketing and by word of mouth. We are reaching out to our international markets and go-to-market over there is initially through agencies and reselling model. Our competitors are Brandwatch, Radian6 and TalkWalker.

What is the future roadmap of the company?

Today, Konnect Insights is being used by brands from automobile, telecom, BFSI, entertainment, IT and pharma. The focus is to reach out to more brands in these sectors. Social listening and analytics has a huge market with a total market size of US$5.40 billion and we want to be the market leader in this space in a couple of years.

What is your Vision?Konnect Insights is the most preferred tool

by many brands and agencies today because of our own search engine capabilities. It is important for us that we make our search engines more robust. Today, we crawl close-to 25 million websites and as we are going global we will be further improving on this. Our key motto is not to miss any conversation. Intelligent dashboards in Konnect Insights powered by this data are getting very intuitive, we want to further focus on our “sKonnect Recommends” module to help brand managers take informed decision based on data. n

FACE TO FACE

Vivo V5 PlusVivo presents V5Plus with dual front camera. It provides a seamless performance

with a better resolution display and a much powerful battery. The smartphone looks premium with its unibody metal finish covering the entire back and side panel. It is available in two colours-gold and white.

The handset comes with 13.87cm (5.5) FHD display, with curved edges and ultra-narrow bezels for a more comfortable touch. The fifth generation Corning Gorilla glass provides stronger screen protection. It runs on Funtouch OS 3.0 Operating System (based on Android 6.0) and powers by 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM and a robust Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Octa-core CPU. The storage capacity can be increased upto 256GB via micro SD card.

The smartphone offers dual front camera (20 MP and 8 MP) and 16 MP rear camera with flash. The combination of two lenses i.e. 20 MP and 8 MP will ensure that a device captures the much-needed depth of field. The front came has LED flash, called Moonlight flash. It also creates an amazing Bokeh effect. The camera interface is quite good.

V5 Plus’s slender body is packed with a 3055mAh battery, designed to power the device to last through a longer working day. The twin-engine charging technology offers a faster charging speed and the charging protection system offers a safer, worry-free charging experience.

V5 Plus offers a technological breakthrough with its faster than faster fingerprint unlocking that unlocks the screen in just 0.2 seconds. The updated fingerprint recognition technology allows users to access their favourite apps by pressing the fingerprint sensor twice.

VAR MOBILITY


In the age of mobility, multiple mobile devices of the workforce, and end point

devices like printers and scanners including IoT devices are now the points from where breaches or intrusions occur.

The other aspect is the network today is not compartmentalized as wireless/ datacenter/campus/remote network. It is increasingly one integrated network where a user can have access from any of these areas. Hence the task from the NAC solutions is a combined integrated solution for wired, wireless, and IoT devices with Complete visibility of all devices.

We live in an app environment, and all interactions start at the EDGE. In order to ensure security at the edge, role based access, and end point visibility is becoming critical. HPE Aruba’s mobility Security Platform –ClearPass, is one of the leading Network Access Control Solution in the world.

ClearPass makes the end point visible and helps to profile them based on role based access. With ClearPassUniversal Profiler, IT team can secure the interactions coming from multiple mobile devices of an end user, multiple endpoint devices like printers and scanners and importantly the IoT devices & dumb devices.

To exemplify the necessity for this, there was situation where the security of a financial institution was recently compromised, when hackers managed to gain access from a network printer. In such situations Aruba ClearPass helps to mitigate intrusions of this nature.

The #GenMobileworkforce comes to work with their own devices. Also corporates are increasingly allowing the employees to access corporate applications from their mobile devices. Profiling and establishing the class of services associated with the employee becomes very critical in this model. Aruba ClearPass allows the creation of policies to address this need. With Aruba ClearPass, when a user or endpoints is brought onboard the network, and access is granted, the user and endpoints are continuously monitored for their security status. Based on their latest security status, they can continue to be connected or be disconnected - this instantaneous function, is a key requirement from the current era NAC solutions. HPE

with Firewall Advanced Threat Detection, vulnerability management, SIEM, MDM, and other platforms, thus improving the quality of security by allowing these solutions/softwares’ to trigger defense actions. The NAC today is orchestrating the entire network access mechanism, and becoming the central console of IT and SOC. The bi-directional communication with other security platforms ensures that these tools in Firewalls/VM etc. hugely improve access control.

Increasingly, application patches, OS upgrades and policy updates are being pushed centrally from the NAC, and NAC deployments are getting larger in size to accommodate the multiple devices that employees are bringing to work or the incorporation of IoT into the network.

Aruba ClearPass solution is delivered through two options. One is through its appliance approach, and the other, is its virtual server method, So that it can scale with expanding Networks of the enterprises. It is a multi-vendor in nature and supports wired, wireless and IoT devices helping them to be profiled and help in implementing corporate network access policy by enabling seamless interworking with other parallel solutions like firewall software’s’, MDMs etc

An important part of the networking security is being contextually aware, and endpoint device visibility is a key element that the NAC has to execute. For instance, an alert which comes from an endpoint, the security will need to know how the endpoint is attached to the network, what certificates are there on the end point, what applications are supported on the endpoint and also gather its “posture” assessment report. Integration with other security technologies and platform makes the NAC a key ally to seamless integration for network security operations.

Aruba ClearPass is a true follower of this fundamental through its concept of “ClearPassExchange” initiative wherein it integrates seamlessly with MDM and firewall solutions.

The concept of BYOD or BYOT have triggered the intensity for the customers to seriously evaluate comprehensive NAC solutions, and Aruba ClearPass stands out to be the most defining one. n

ArubaClearPASS ensures this functionality through its Adaptive Trust Concept.

Aruba ClearPass is designed grounds up for this and capable of delivering NAC services across the Integrated network. it is also universal in nature as it is uniquely capable of integrating multi-vendor network elements & components

NAC platforms are increasingly integrated

Santanu GhoseDirector – Aruba Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Network Access Control in Mobility EraIn order to ensure security at the edge, role based access,

and end point visibility is becoming critical

An important part of the networking security is being

contextually aware, and endpoint device visibility is a key element that the NAC has to execute. For instance, an alert which comes

from an endpoint, the security will need to know how the endpoint

is attached to the network, what certificates are there on

the end point, what applications are supported on the endpoint and also gather its “posture”

assessment report. Integration with other security technologies

and platform makes the NAC a key ally to seamless integration for network security operations.


Lenovo partners Govt. of Maharashtra for Village Social Transformation Mission

Lenovo launches Data Centre Partner Programme

Lenovo has partnered with government of Maharashtra to provide technology for the first phase of the Village Social Transformation Mission.

Under the partnership, Lenovo will provide 110 tablets with a view to bring technology based efficiencies in health, education, water conservation and irrigation programmes.

Village Social Transformation Mission is an initiative, announced by the chief minister of Maharashtra in August 2016 which aims to transform 1,000 villages affected by drought or social challenges into model villages by 2018.

Lenovo tablets will be used by rural development fellows who have been specifically hired to take the mission forward. The first phase will cover 100 villages that will cover talukas and gram panchayats of Aurangabad, Nagpur and Wardha districts. T

The chief minister’s fellowship members will own the social transformation and will work with the local government (gram panchyats) and corporates/NGOs and the

Lenovo has announced the launch of its new Lenovo Data Centre Partner Programme for Asia Pacific aimed at helping Lenovo channel partners bring best-of-breed data centre solutions to the enterprise market. The programme provides Lenovo business partners with exclusive access to top quality support and attractive incentives – designed to help them grow their businesses, and to reward their commitment to Lenovo’s solutions. Channel partners are rewarded with generous economic incentives, training, and dedicated resources regardless of their partner tiers.

Partners can also look forward to clear and simple pathways through the programme, with various tiers awarded through the meeting of revenue thresholds, and by maintaining certified expertise on Lenovo’s solutions. Partner tiers include silver, gold, and the exclusive platinum tier, which extends additional privileges such as certification vouchers, invitations to advisory councils and direct access to Lenovo’s knowledge base.

As of launch, Lenovo Data Centre Partner Programme has seen more than 800 partners enrolled across Asia Pacific.

Sumir Bhatia, vice president, Data Centre Group for Asia Pacific said, “As the only major data centre brand with no legacy to protect, Lenovo is uniquely positioned to help our business partners meet diverse needs in the enterprise market, through best-of-breed data centre solutions and our open eco-system of partnerships with leading IT providers. We are 100% dedicated to our ‘channel first’ strategy, and are laser-focused in our mission to deliver value to our Asia Pacific partners through profitability.”

state government.Rahul Agarwal, MD & CEO, Lenovo

India said, "We believe that technology implementation at the grass root level is the key to a successful transformation

Rahul AgarwalMD & CEOLenovo India

Sumir BhatiaVice President, Data Centre Group for Asia Pacific

story of our country. The initiative by the state government is a step in the right direction to meet the goal of self-sustainable development and empowering the citizens by technology.”

The initiative fits well into Lenovo’s CSR strategy and vision for providing technology for quality education that includes skill training and learning practical aspects of sustainable development through technology based platforms.

The Village Social Transformation Mission is a unique mechanism with the potential to transform rural Maharashtra. It aims to provide hard and soft infrastructure and quality last mile service delivery, empowering villages to practice self-sustainable development.

The mission will converge government efforts with activities undertaken by corporates under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) Act. Existing corporate activities will be supported by existing government schemes and administrative machinery. Meanwhile, the government will incorporate corporate best practices, technical expertise and insights.

VAR CORPORATE


Bruce Davie appointed VP and CTO of VMware APJ

VMware has announced the appointment of Bruce Davie to the role of vice president and chief technology officer (CTO) of the VMware Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) business, effective immediately. As CTO, Davie will lead VMware APJ’s technical community, which includes systems engineers, technical account managers and professional services organization, with a focus on customers’ long-term strategy, technical innovation and product quality.

Davie has more than 25 years of leadership and technical experience. He joins VMware’s APJ leadership team from VMware’s global headquarters, where he most recently served as CTO of networking and a principal engineer in the networking and security business unit.

Qualcomm elevates Dr James H. Thompson as Chief Technology Officer

Qualcomm has announced that Dr James H. Thompson, Executive Vice-President of Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., has been elevated to the additional position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Matt Grob, Executive Vice-President, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and CTO, will transition to the role of Executive Vice-President of Technology, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and continue to report to Steve Mollenkopf.

Thompson will align the companywide technical and product roadmaps across all business areas. He also will have oversight of Corporate R&D and Corporate Engineering.

Raman Roy appointed Nasscom chairman

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has announced the appointment of Raman Roy, chairman and managing director of Quatrro as its chairman of NASSCOM for 2017-2018.

Raman Roy has been a member of Nasscom’s executive council and was the vice-chairman for 2016-17. He takes over the mantle from CP Gurnani, managing director and chief executive officer, Tech Mahindra.

CP Gurnani, past chairman, NASSCOM said, “Last year has been an eventful journey for the industry. For me, it was a great experience, to get this opportunity, and help chart the course for the industry in the new world order. I wish Raman the very best in his task ahead."

Kartik Shahani quits RSA, to join IBM

If internal sources are to be believed, after a long stint of close to 7 years at RSA, Kartik Shahani has left the company to join IBM. RSA is the security division of EMC, where Kartik has served as its Country Manager for India & SAARC.

Kartik’s job role and responsibilities at IBM is still under wraps.At RSA, Kartik was responsible for leading RSA’s business operations

in the region and growing sales of the company’s offerings in the area of security solutions for business acceleration.

Kartik came to RSA with an illustrious track record, having held senior positions with McAfee India Sales and Netmagic. At both the companies, he was instrumental in the complete turnaround of their operations.

Snapdeal appoints Jason Kothari as CEO of FreeCharge

Snap deal has announced the appointment of Jason Kothari as the chief executive officer of FreeCharge and a commitment to invest an additional $20 million in the company. In addition to taking on the role of the CEO, Jason will continue his key leadership role as chief strategy & investment officer at Snapdeal. He will also join the board of directors of FreeCharge.

Kunal Bahl, Co-founder & CEO, Snapdeal said, “Jason is a strong, strategic and versatile business leader & entrepreneur who has already been the CEO of two successful companies. We are delighted to announce his leadership role at FreeCharge.” Most recently, Kothari was CEO of Softbank-backed online real estate company Housing.com.

CIS appoints K. K. Shetty as CEO & MD

After spending 30 years in the component, enterprise, communication, and telecom network industry, K. K. Shetty, starts his entrepreneurial journey with Citadel Intelligent Systems.

As CEO & MD of CIS, Shetty’s focus will be on providing cutting-edge fiber- optic technologies in the infrastructure space. CIS will offer state-of-the-art smart city solutions, security & surveillance, green automobile solutions, and other value-added assemblies for various verticals. CIS is co-promoted by Lumipol Holding B.V. (Netherlands) and Hanuka Technology Solutions.

K. K. Shetty said, "It is an opportunity for me to be surrounded with talented people and help them to fulfil their dreams by exploring their full potential.”

Polycom appoints Marco Landi as President of APAC

Polycom has announced that Marco Landi, Polycom President, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), has been promoted to an expanded role of leading the company’s operations in Asia-Pacific (APAC). Counting more than 20 years’ business development and management experience, Landi will be responsible for driving revenue and market share growth within both regions.

A dynamic sales and business leader, Marco has successfully led large and small teams through tough economic climates. His expertise lies in driving growth through challenging market conditions, enterprise sales, channels, marketing and go-to-market strategy across multiple markets.

Vivek Sharma joins Lenovo as Director – Data Center Business

Lenovo India has appointed Vivek Sharma as the company’s new Director, Data Center Group, India, effective immediately. Vivek will be based in Bangalore and will report to Sumir Bhatia, Vice-President, Data Centre Group, Asia-Pacific, Lenovo. Vivek will also be part of Lenovo’s India Leadership Team which is led by India MD & CEO, Rahul Agarwal

As the new India DCG leader, Vivek will be responsible for driving profitable growth in India. He will focus on customer-centric solutions as well as manage an extensive product portfolio including Server, Storage, Software, Services and Networking.

Movers & Shakers


RNI - NO 72399/1999 Reg. No: DL-SW-1/4030/15-17Printing Date 18 & 19Date of Posting 20 & 21

every month

56 pages including cover 56 March 2017 www.varindia.com

RNI - NO 72399/1999 Reg. No: DL-SW-1/4030/15-17Printing Date 18 & 19Date of Posting 20 & 21

every month

56 pages including cover