Technology for the silent majority

What's in it for me? Reboot innovation

Companies focus on MacBook and Skype users. But what about the truck driver or insurance agent on our dusty roads?

Whether it’s a boom, a bubble or the new status quo, there’s never been more innovation spilling out of the tech community. And that’s a good thing. Consumer technology from smartphone to e-commerce is changing our habits — from the way we communicate, to the way we buy things. Further ahead is virtual reality (VR) and the internet of things which will change the way we do business.

But too much of today’s technological advances are geared towards people that are just like us — laptop slinging, desk-bound employees who already have an abundance of technology at their fingertips. We have opinions on the new Android phone, would love to buy a new MacBook and grew up typing out reports on MSFT office, or tweet incessantly even at work.

Many companies are completely missing the mark by neglecting the growing mobile-only workforce who never owned a Macbook, never used Skype. Their most recent introduction to technology was a brand new smartphone. This includes the construction supervisor, delivery driver or insurance agent on his moped travelling the dusty by-roads of Indian cities — a mobile workforce who is newly enabled to receive and send information using their smartphone. IDC estimates that the global mobile workers will make up more than 37 per cent of the workforce (1.3 billion workers) by the end of 2015. Real enterprise innovation is about breaking down barriers so that experiences once available to a privileged few become accessible to a much larger group, or the “silent majority” — this new class of worker who has now become connected with the acquisition of a smartphone.

“The neighbourhood shopkeeper letting my grandmother know that fresh vegetables have arrived, using WhatsApp”, is the manifestation of this silent majority now being able to communicate business information in real time. Some companies have recognised this gaping hole in the innovation landscape and are developing products focused on democratisation. For example, in the US, Square’s products give small business owners an operational sophistication to accept credit cards — once only available to much larger retailers.

The gap in enterprise tech

While many consumer-facing technologies are accessible to anyone with a smartphone, a quick look at today’s hottest enterprise technologies exposes a gap in access.

In the security vertical, companies are developing new technologies to better detect and respond to network security threats. But what about the retail associates who communicate about product sales via WhatsApp or insecure personal email address?

In the big data world, companies are developing new software programmes that enable major corporations to better understand and use the mountains of data they’ve collected. But what about the smaller businesses who cannot afford this and still use text messaging or faxes from their offices to collect that data?

In the up and coming virtual reality industry, 3D cameras and virtual reality headsets will allow remote workers to feel fully integrated into an office across the globe. But what about the freelance photographers who cannot set up or afford such elaborate equipment at every photo-shoot location?

This gap even exists in my own world: enterprise messaging. Most of the companies in this space are creating desktop-first applications that empower employees to more efficiently collaborate with their co-workers whether they are down the hall or across the globe. But what about the insurance salesman, the construction supervisor or even the flight attendant, who spend most of their day away from a computer?

Time to think differently

The silent majority has quickly become a large part of the workforce in India business, the hands and legs that service the needs of massive organisations with thousands of employees flung across hundreds of cities. Some of them don’t have an email ID or, for that matter, are not eligible to be issued a desktop computer. I recently talked to a tractor salesman who was traversing the rutted roads of rural Karnataka but still had to submit a forecast report every week to HQ on projected sales in his territory. He does not have access to the company’s brand new sales-force automation tool or a desktop computer. All he has is a smartphone!

The tech industry didn’t end up in this situation on purpose or in a scheme to isolate small businesses or the mobile workforce. We ended up here because very often great ideas stem from personal experiences. Since the developers coding behind a computer all day are the ones creating new technologies, it makes sense that many of these advances would solve problems that they’ve experienced first-hand.

Building practical applications using mobile technologies for the mom-and-pop business or mobile-only worker requires a different, way of thinking. Entrepreneurs must start with a clean slate, ditching thestatus quo in their personal working experiences.

They must leave their air-conditioned conference rooms and magic markers and travel the same road as the tractor salesman.

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13th Express Technology Senate: Technology companies have to be run by technologists, says Reliance’s Jyotindra Thacker

Jyotindra Thacker, president (technology), Reliance Industries, is someone who is not often spotted at industry events but has a sharp eye on technology...

Jyotindra Thacker, president (Tech), RIL, in conversation with Anant Goenka, Wholetime Director and Head - New Media, Express Group, at the 13th edition of Express Technology Senate.

Jyotindra Thacker, president (technology), Reliance Industries, is someone who is not often spotted at industry events but has a sharp eye on technology and is considered a master negotiator. An alumni of IIT-Kharagpur, he has been with RIL for over 25 years now. Thacker was awarded the Technology Senator of the year award at the 13th edition of Express Technology Senate recently, post which he had a long and candid interaction with Express Group’s Wholetime Director and Head – New Media, Anant Goenka, where he revealed the reason behind the delay in the launch of Reliance Jio’s services as well as why he believes that technology is best handled in-house rather than outsourcing it to vendors.

Excerpts:

We didn’t formally announce your coming for the event after you were chosen for the Technology Senator of the year award. And when we did, all the response which we got from people here was, “Really? Is JT really coming?” So, JT, why are you so elusive?

Lot of people wonder why I do not attend events. Lot of people want to make a good resume, put it on Google. They would like to change their job every three years. I have been with Reliance for over a quarter century now. I don’t need to be everywhere. We have been buying technology from all the vendors you have talked about. If I am everywhere, all the vendors will pile on me and it is very difficult to avoid them. So it becomes easier not to be there.

My team is doing things in a very quiet way.

Watch Video: Jyotindra Thacker of Reliance Jio, Technology Senator Of The Year In Conversation With Anant Goenka, Wholetime Director and Head – New Media, Express Group

Today, you have a reputation of being a master negotiator, from whom one should learn the art of negotiation. Do you accept this title?

I don’t think I am a master negotiator. I always feel that whenever I finish a deal, I have left something on the table.

You are always under pressure to close deals fast enough. Sometime you feel you have done good enough and sometimes not. I don’t know how this impression has built up of my being a master negotiator.

In terms of project delivery, wherever engineering is involved, the speed and efficiency at which it works at Reliance, is often far superior to anywhere in the private or government sector. The Jamnagar sealink, for instance, is four times longer than Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla sea link. Mumbai took 10 years to complete, but your Jamnagar sealink took just one-and-a-half years. What is the secret of making things work so fast?

We had almost completed the refinery at Jamnagar. As regards the 11-km sealink at the refinery, about six months before its construction was to begin, the contract ran into trouble as the Dubai vendor to whom we had given the order wanted more money for the project. We renegotiated the contract. Even at the enhanced price, it was still cheaper for us to do it rather not do it for three years and keep changing the contractor. We actually paid an extra price and got the work done. Unlike the materials used in the Bandra-Kurla sealink, which were constructed on-site, all materials used for the Jamnagar sealink were constructed off-site and then put there. As far as engineering at Reliance is concerned, we spend lot of time on planning. What Mukesh Bhai (RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani) likes is you get 85% right and then order all the materials required. Even if you go slightly wrong, it does not matter. If you are doing a large project, like refinery, which could otherwise cost you $5 billion to $6 billion, you at least end up spending $4.5 billion on equipment procurement. You may be buying it at a price, but you save on time. The Mathura refinery, then with a capacity of 6 million tonne, was the largest in India and took eight years to complete. By the time we finally got involved in engineering for the Jamnagar refinery, we had 27 million tonne of refinery project. We used to start ordering the moment we needed things in advance in record time. We used to train local people for the welder’s job as most of the welders for refinery were in Saudi Arabia and we could not have afforded to pay them in dollars and dirham. There was no other short cut. We build the project in record time.

Also see: Glimpses from the 13th Express Technology Senate

As Technology Senator of the year, what is the advice you’d give a modern CIO today?

I believe, keep management away from the technology decisions (Audience applause). If they start getting involved in technology, you can never decide. You have to prove to them faster and make sure you always talk to them about business. I am fortunate that in my case Mukesh Ambani gave us the freedom to buy any technology that we wanted, at whatever price. He has confidence in us that we would not block the money. We do lot of experiments. We have a laboratory that keeps trying out various technologies. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we don’t. There are companies who claim to be good in technology but outsource it in the end. This is not the case with us. If Reliance wants to use a technology, then it is better to be doing on its own…We would love to do it first on our own and make sure it is perfected rather than let the vendor run it at our expense. If you really want to implement a technology and take value out of it, you should get your hands dirty. Technology companies have to be run by technologists. So if you say Reliance is a technology company then it has to be managed by such people and in that case I think Mukesh Ambani is a good mix of technology and commercial, because he understands and goes deep into reading everything, tries to understand everything.

Everything relating to Reliance Jio has been top secret. It took years to even know what the brand name would be.

Even with the launch date, we have been expecting rollout of services for three years. You said earlier that Reliance is a company of revolutions (polyester, plastic). Is this delay happening because this is Reliance’s biggest revolution yet?

First, let’s talk about the time line issue. We took a bet to go with LTE (long term evolution) technology in 2010-11.

Now we are in 2015. We thought that within three years there will be handsets, devices and chipsets which will make it up fast enough. Unfortunately, these things never came at a price point which Reliance wanted. At the same time, we started getting auctions with newer and newer spectrum. So we also started re-engineering ourselves. From 2300 MHz of 4G spectrum in 2010, we bought 1800 MHz and this year we bought 850 MHz. So now we have to buy handsets and technology that can support all these three bands simultaneously. We approached Qualcomm, which is our chipset partner and vendor, and told them that we would like to follow on this. Fortunately, Qualcomm is also following on the same path.

If you want to launch your business and if you cannot create a dent like a revolution as we would like to call it, then there is no point in doing it. Since handsets were not going to be available at the price point which is affordable to the masses of India, there was no point in launching our business. So we thought we might as well wait for one more year. Now there is a talk of Rs 5,000 handset. I think this is an affordable price point.

Learning lessons from Korea, Japan and USA, we knew that the only way a wireless operator can be a dominant player is with a large amount of spectrum. Today, we also have the largest spectrum bank compared to any other operator in India. We never thought the government would auction the spectrum so fast.

Did you expect Airtel to pre-empt you?

They did what is right for their company. I am sure, we will do what is right for our company. It is an open market so we will do what is right for us.

We all know there would be a whole bunch of apps. There are several apps that are going to be in a Jio device. Instead of hearing these from the grapevine, what can you tell us? Ye Jio hai kya? What are we going to actually see in December this year?

You would see unleashing of bandwidth first. Devices will be at affordable prices. We did not want to just create a dump pipe for others to ride on it. We wanted to basically create some intelligence into the network, and apps and an economy around it. Apps and bandwidth typically go together and that’s when it becomes a viable proposition for the end user also.

Are we going to see cellphones? Are we going to see tablets? Are we going to see television? Are we going to see all three? Are we going to see a personal Wi-Fi? Are we going to see a dongle or like a SIM card? For a layman, what are we going to see?

My feeling is that you will see plethora of devices. You will see MiFi devices coming with a very efficient long life batteries. You will see dongles for sure. MiFi cards, tablets. You will have Wi-Fi tablets as LTE tablets are still not popular in the world.

And the Wi-Fi tablets will work on Android or be your own?

We will first have a Wi-Fi device, which will run on Android and later also on Microsoft.

One critical view or rather the sadistic view of the Jio rollout is that Reliance is an engineering brand, it is an engineering company. All the revolution you have spoken, all the work that Reliance has done is a phenomenal engineering business work. But from a consumer facing likeness and kindness of the brand, Reliance Fresh is your only consumer facing brand in recent times and only last year it was a roaring success. Does this bother you? Does this thought come into your mind that we are doing something very different? We are now doing consumer facing thing, which we have not done for a very long time?

A: This is something our competitors always want to tell ·that you are a B2B brand and a newcomer in the B2C. I think we have been facing such situations very often. This has happened to us many a times. When we were in textiles, people told us not to come in petrochemicals. When we went ahead for refinery or retail and now telecom, we faced a similar situation. We will prove them wrong once again.

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NASSCOM Organizes ‘MarTech Confluence 2015’ – An Amalgamation of Technology and Marketing in ‘One of a Kind’ Initiative

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) in a first of its kind initiative will be organizing MarTech Confluence 2015 to inspire businesses to use technology to drive deeper brand-consumer connections.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) in a first of its kind initiative will be organizing MarTech Confluence 2015 to inspire businesses to use technology to drive deeper brand-consumer connections. The conference will be held from 3rd ndash;to4th September 2015at ITC Grand Central, Mumbai to discuss opportunities that technology integration will bring in the field of marketing.

The world is increasingly transforming into a digital sphere, with nearly 50% of the global population having access to web. This transformation has further escalated with the multi device availability to access internet. This is redefining the role of marketing, and causing companies to invest more of their marketing budget on technology. Advancement in digital technologies has led to expansion of the internet usage and India with its 354 million internet users as of June 2015 is expected to surpass US internet users number by 2016 to become the second largest internet user population.

Mr. R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOMwhile talking about the event said,With technology penetrating almost every aspect of our lives, this confluence will give a platform for CMOs and CIOs to exchange ideas and collaborate on the future of technology led marketing in India. The forum will generate powerful ideas for the future, identify opportunities for the Indian technology industry and create a platform to align stakeholders around its vision.

In the last 5 years, there has been a significant change in digital consumers; behavior. Consumers are increasingly using multi-screen for data consumption and a typical global multiscreen user spends close to 7 hours on various devices for media consumption. Out of which 2 hours 27 minutes are spent on smartphone, which accounts for 35% of the daily screen minutes spend. India stands higher on this transition curve as multi – device owners in India typically spend 2 hours 42 minutes on smart phones and 1 hour 36 minutes on laptop. The total time spent by typical Indian multi device on screen is close to 6 hours 24 minutes, this presents an unprecedented opportunity for marketers to reach out directly to their customers.

While, traditionally marketing has always focused on communicating a brand story through established media like television and print, new technologies are giving consumers exceptional powers to reject, add to, or endorse the brand story. Digital initiatives will be the key driver of marketing spends for the next 10 years. At present, the global marketing spend is estimated to be ~$1097 billion, it is expected to grow to ~$1571 billion by 2025. Technology as a percentage of marketing budgets is expected to rise to 12% in 2025 from 3% in 2015.

Keeping these trends in mind, the two day confluence will bring together leading global and Indian marketers and technologists to guide businesses on how to use technology to better their marketing efforts. Industry stalwarts like D Shivakumar, Chairman CEO, PepsiCo India and Prof. Nirmalya Kumar, Member- Group Executive Council, Tata Sons are someof the specialists who will be addressing the event.

About NASSCOM:

NASSCOM is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPM industry in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with more than 1800 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOMs member and associate member companies are broadly in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPM, e-commerce and web services, engineering services and animation and gaming. NASSCOM membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs about 3.5 million professionals.

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Lowe’s doubling down on Indian talent for disruptive technology solutions

Nearly 12 months after setting up its first global in-house centre (GIC) in India, Lowe’s is ramping up India operations by hiring more people.

BENGALURU: After several years of working closely with Indian outsourcing giants such as Infosys and Wipro for back-office solutions, US home improvement retailer Lowe's is now doubling down on Indian talent for disruptive technology solutions as part of its omni-channel strategy to take on online rivals such as  Amazon. 

Nearly 12 months after setting up its first global in-house centre (GIC) in India, Lowe's is ramping up India operations by hiring more people, transferring more technology projects to the Bengaluru GIC and looking to leverage the startup ecosystem through a brand new corporate accelerator programme that it will launch soon, its chief information officer Paul D Ramsay  said. "We have a commitment to innovation. We have an innovation lab concept through which we look at the startup community. We also look at some of the bigger companies as well from an innovation perspective — so yes, our innovation play is part of our solution," Ramsay told ET. 

"We started off with 11 employees here (in Bengaluru). In about 12 months, we are now over 300 employees. And that will be over 500 employees by the end of this year, and with further growth to come as we progress. It's a growth story," he said. Ramsay and his team at Lowe's has already met dozens of Indian startups that the company may look to tap for new-age disruptive solutions. He declined to comment on whether Lowe's had started working with any of these startups. 

"Every time I come here, I spend time with the startup community," said Ramsay. "Part of the reason we're here is because of the entrepreneurial, technology capability we see here. This is a happening place. And we absolutely want to be part of that." 

Lowe's, which competes with larger US rival Home Depot and generates a majority of its revenues through sales from its offline stores, wants to increase the proportion of revenues it gets from online sales and is looking to leverage Bengaluru's startup culture and abundance of engineering talent to fuel the strategy. 

"There's obviously an economic advantage you have with Bangalore. And also it's very crowded in the West Coast — there's an opportunity and a scale in Bangalore that allows us to tap into the market here, which maybe a little more challenging in other places," he said. 



The corporate accelerator programme will be part of a larger innovation centre that Lowe's will launch in Bengaluru later this year. 

ET had reported in February that Lowe's would launch its first technology innovation centre outside the US in Bengaluru where teams of engineers would work on areas such as data analytics, mobile applications and payment technologies
.

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13th Express Technology Senate: Inside India’s best CIO Conference

Chief of the Indian Army’s South Western Command, Lt. Gen Arun Kumar Sahni stole the show with a presentation on the use of technology by India’s armed forces.

L to R: Harnath Babu, CIO, Aviva Life Insurance Company India Ltd; Suneel Aradhye, Group CIO, RPG Enterprises; Sunil Chandiramani, CEO, Nyka Advisory Services; Vinay Nigudkar, Head — Technology Projects, Reliance Capital Ltd, and Satish Mittal, Sr. Vice President and CTO, Vodafone Business Services, at a panel discussion on Day 1 of the 13th Express Technology Senate held in Jaipur.

From panel discussions to technology presentations and from expo to awards, the 13th Express Technology Senate had it all. The event, presented by Vodafone, attracted over 100 dynamic chief information officers (CIOs), technology analysts, and representatives from leading technology companies to Jaipur’s Fairmont Hotel from August 19 to 22.

The keynote address was delivered by Romi Mahajan, noted author, marketer, investor and board member for multiple start-ups. Speaking on the subject of “The Responsible Executive: CIOs in the Digital Transformation Age,” Romi said, “The CIO is the most important executive in the company because technology and business have converged.”

The inaugural panel discussion on “Driving Digital Transformation in the Enterprise·Evolving the IT Department” was moderated by Sunil Chandiramani, CEO, Nyka Advisory Services.

The panelists were: Suneel Aradhye, Group CIO, RPG Enterprises; Vinay Nigudkar, Head — Technology Projects, Reliance Capital Ltd; Harnath Babu, CIO, Aviva Life Insurance Company India Ltd, and Satish Mittal, Senior Vice-President & CTO, Vodafone Business Services. This brainstorming session highlighted the issues and challenges that businesses face while driving digital transformation. Romi Mahajan moderated the panel discussion on “Reinvention of the Consumer Experience”. The panelists were: Goutam Datta, Vice President-Technology, ICICI Lombard GIC Ltd; Manish Godha, CEO, Founder, Advaiya Solutions, and Parna Ghosh, Head ICT — India, Far East & Japan, CNH Industrial Group.

The idea that every business must focus on improving the consumer experience came to the fore during the discussion. The panel discussions were interspersed with interesting technology presentations, which touched upon the new technology solutions developed by various companies for meeting the needs of different businesses.

The much-awaited Express Uptime Champion Awards 2015 function was held in the evening. The objective of the awards is to recognise companies for having the best network uptime records for the year. The session began with Jyotindra Thacker of Reliance Jio receiving the Technology Senator of the Year award from Anant Goenka, Wholetime Director and Head-New Media, The Indian ExpressGroup.

During their on-stage conversation, Goenka asked Thacker to advise the CIOs in the audience on what they must do to ensure faster technology implementation in their organisation. Thacker said, “The CIOs have to keep the management out of all the technology decisions. If you want to execute a technology project on time, take complete charge of the project and implement it on your own.”

He added, “Generally the CIOs working in different organisations lack the freedom to implement their technology ideas, but Mukesh Ambani has given me full independence for researching new technologies and having them quickly implemented.”

The Express Uptime Champion Awards 2015, sponsored by Amaron Quanta, were given under four categories · BFSI; Manufacturing; Media & Entertainment; Travel & Hospitality; Retail. The award ceremony was invigorated by the live performance of folk dancers of Rajasthan.

The second day of Express Technology Senate began on a high note with the Founder and CEO of ESDS announcing the filing of patent in the US for ESDS’ proprietary cloud storage technology, known as Auto-Scalable eNlight Cloud Hosting Platform. A presentation from Subramanian N, Technical Director, Risk Consulting, KPMG India followed, on the topic of ‘Risks Associated with Internet of Things (IoT)’. Subramanian stated that while it is imperative for businesses to make endeavours for taking advantage of IoT, the security concerns must not be ignored.

Speaking further on the subject of IoT, Suphal Mehrotra, SVP, National Corporate, Vodafone Business Services said IoT is already being deployed for greater efficiency and productivity. He said the sheeps and cows in New Zealand are embedded with Vodafone SIMs that enable farmers to efficiently track and manage their livestock.

The panel discussion on “The Cloud as a Building Block of the Digital Transformation” was moderated by Kunal Pande, Partner, KPMG, India. It was attended by Anjani Kumar, CIO, Safexpress Pvt Ltd; Satish Pendse, President, Highbar Technologies Ltd; Ravikiran Mankikar, Chief General Manager, Shyamrao Vitthal Co-operative Bank; Bhushan Akerkar, CIO, Hindalco Industries Ltd, and Piyush Somani, MD and CEO, ESDS Software Solutions Pvt Ltd. The panelists touched upon many areas of concern in cloud deployment. They discussed how flexibility and scalability could be achieved in the cloud without compromising on security.

Lt Gen Arun Kumar Sahni, Chief of the Indian Army’s South Western Command inaugurated the cyber security track of the event. He gave a detailed view on the ways by which new information technology systems are getting implemented by the Indian Army and other armed forces. His presentation was met with a standing ovation.

The last power panel discussion of the day was on “Security in a Digital Enterprise — Inspiring Digital Innovation in the Organisation”. The session was moderated by Vishal Salvi, Partner, Pricewaterhou-seCoopers Pvt Ltd. The panelists were Samir Dhaga, Vice-President (IT) and CIO, Videocon d2h; Manish Pal, Deputy Vice-President, Information Security Group, HDFC Bank; Prashant Maldikar, Head- IT Security, IndusInd Bank, and Navin Mehra, Regional Business Head, West, Central & East India, Bangladesh & Bhutan, Fortinet.

A ceremony for the distribution of Express Security Strategist Awards 2015 was held in the evening, which was sponsored by Fortinet, besides the Express Intelligent Enterprise Awards 2015, which was sponsored by Datamatics Global Services Ltd.

Indeed, the CIOs have been talking about being a true partner to the business for many years, but only a few have broken out of their comfort zones to actually become one.

Keeping this in mind, the third day provided tips to the CIOs for mastering changes, challenges and expectations that they might face in their line of work. The first session of the day was a conversation between Satish Pendse, President — Highbar Technologies and Dr Raghu Pillai of The Indian Express Group.

The second session of the day was a presentation by Mukund Prasad, former director and Group CIO of the Welspun Group. Mukund Prasad shared interesting insights on how the CIOs can emerge as business leaders.

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WE'RE SPENDING $10 BILLION ON KIDS' CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY—BUT DOES IT HELP THEM LEARN?

I’m only seconds into a digital copy of T.S. Eliot’s famous ode to adolescence, The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock, when my ears prickle uncomfortably. As I read—"Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky, / Like a patient etherised upon a table"—a soft rock track reminiscent of James Taylor begins to crescendo in the background. Eliot’s arch observations are drowned out by the acoustic guitar and its upbeat melody.

For a dose of relief I turn to YouTube, where I find a copy of an old recording that features Eliot himself reading the text, sans soundtrack. The strange and charmed rhymes, the brooding hint of menace, the nasal timbre of literary elitism: At once, the poem is restored. By the time Eliot intones, "Time yet for a hundred visions and revisions," I’m engrossed in the text, lost to the world.

And so it’s with a skeptical ear and eye that I return to Booktrack, which sells digital books that pair text with music and ambient sounds. Since its founding in 2010, Booktrack has grown its library of titles to 15,000 and raised $10 million from investors, including Silicon Valley kingmaker Peter Thiel. The success of audio book provider Audible, which sold to Amazon for $300 million, beckons.

And Booktrack is far from alone. Companies that aspire to transform old-fashioned reading into an interactive media experience are on the rise, and they are increasingly looking to schools as a promising market. Earlier this month, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt bought a library of over 700 interactive books and related technology assets from MeeGenius, an e-book subscription company focused on early readers. In July,Amazon signed an e-book contract worth $30 million with the New York City Department of Education, signaling its growing presence in K-12. Reading Rainbow parent company RRKidz plans to release a classroom edition of its digital library this year. And literacy apps like Learn With Homer have been courting schools and parents by commissioning academic studies that demonstrate their impact and provide a counterweight to the still-dominant narrative that disparages screen time.

But experts caution educators to consider whether technology solutions are simply screen-based versions of long-standing classroom strategies. "When you buy technology for schools, are you using it to digitize, or to create a new learning experience?" asks Rob Mancabelli, cofounder and CEO of BrightBytes, which provides 20,000 U.S. schools with data and research designed to improve their return on investment (or in the company's terms, "return on learning") in educational tools, resources, and professional training. "Over $10 billion is spent on technology every year in the U.S., and the majority of it does not benefit learning outcomes."

It's promising to see schools and app developers start to speak the same language around evidence, he says. But data on the effectiveness of multimedia reading experiences remains incomplete at best: "Every company in the e-reader market is looking for the silver bullet research that will allow them to make those claims."

Booktrack cofounder and CEO Paul Cameron recognized this challenge early on, and has commissioned two academic studies that are featured on the Booktrack website. The one specific to young readers, conducted by the University of Auckland, found that students using Booktrack spent more time reading the given text and answered the equivalent of one additional question out of 15 correctly, in comparison to their control-group peers. Satisfaction scores for the two groups were nearly identical.

Cameron defends Booktrack’s ability to boost engagement, and points to the app’s composition functionality as another source of value. "To create a soundtrack, they have to understand the context of the scene," he says.

After seeing teachers experiment with Booktrack's library in informal ways, Cameron invested in an educational version that has since made its way to over 12,000 classrooms, with more than half of that total footprint in the U.S. A new integration with Google Classroom, introduced this summer, aims to expand that reach. By the end of the year Booktrack Classroom will offer tiered pricing plans—paying $5 per student, for example, might give a teacher access to 150 titles.

Booktrack lesson contributor Amy Harter, an English teacher at Wisconsin’s Port Washington High School, has been using Booktrack for both reading comprehension and composition, assigning lessons that require students to create their own Booktrack experiences. She adopted the tool, she says, because of the way it individualizes the reading experience based on each student’s reading pace and engages them through multi-sensory storytelling. "Not to say that the written page is dead by any means, but I do think that because of the media diet, there is an elevated expectation from students that they're going to do a variety of things in the classroom," she says. "Teenagers have a limited attention span. It's usually pretty clear right away whether they're into it."

To keep them engaged, she experiments, she says, "with a lot of different tools."

Indeed, platforms like like Google Classroom are making it easier than ever before for teachers to experiment with digital tools and switch between apps during class. Clever, a San Francisco-based education startup that raised an additional $30 million last December, provides schools with a secure, universal login for the educational apps within its developer network. And this summer, Google Classroom paved the way for a similar user experience by making its functionality around student-teacher communication and assignment management available to approved developers. Companies like Booktrack benefit from those new platforms and integrations; teachers using both Google Classroom and Booktrack Classroom, for example, will be able to view and grade students’ Booktrack homework alongside assignments completed in Google Docs or other apps.

The lowered barrier to trying out new educational apps comes with potential trade-offs, however: Downloading the app takes seconds, but reading up on relevant research, if it exists, takes far longer. And the industrious educator who searches for "e-reader learning outcomes" will have a difficult time parsing the jargon that results. "Multimedia online novels, e-books, touchable TV, paratext, or technotext have all been used," Greg Toppo reports in The Atlantic. "Someone has even suggested ‘Franken-novel.’"

For his part, Cameron, who is also a parent, argues that he has seen the impact of e-reader experiences in his own home. "I’ve got a couple of young kids, and if I say, ‘Read this book, play this video game, or watch TV,’ the book really struggles," he says. "But if you bring something like [Booktrack] to them, it’s more the way they think these days."

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Intel IDF: Intel-Micron’s 3D XPoint memory technology, branded Optane, will launch in 2016

Image: Intel Newsroom

The Intel Developer Forum is underway and Intel has given a new name to its partnership with Micron over 3D XPoint memory/storage technology – Optane. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced that the memory storage combination would launch under the Intel Optane Technology brand name in 2016.

Krzanich announced that the 3D XPoint technology will be seen across platforms going from data centres, all the way down to Ultrabooks. The Optane technology will be available in both DIMM and SSD form factors.

The 3D Xpoint memory technology is as much as 1,000 times faster and 1,000 times more enduring than NAND, a popular non-volatile memory used in computers, and 10 times denser than what is typically used in machine when it comes to packing in data, according to the companies.

Intel had set up an on-stage benchmarking of an early SSD prototype of 3D Xpoint technology against the Intel SSD P3700 series. The XPoint gave around 76,600 IOPS against 10,600 IOPS on the P3700 SSD (Intel’s current non volatile memory over PCIe interface which is its flagship SSDs at the moment) for a read queue depth of 1. This is an almost 7x improvement in performance.

Earlier at the announcement of 3D Xpoint partnership with Intel, Micron president Mark Adams had said, “This new class of non-volatile memory is a revolutionary technology that allows for quick access to enormous data sets and enables entirely new applications.”

According to Intel and Micron, the immediate application of XPoint memory will be seen in areas such as rich media, high-performance computing, immersive gaming, healthcare, and other emerging fields. With the internet of things there is will be many more products generating massive amounts of new data that must be stored and analysed quickly.

Intel’s senior vice president Rob Crooke has said that the new class of non-volatile memory will bring in some game-changing performance improvements to memory and storage solutions.

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Early experiments with technology

A view of the antenna at the prime earth station of Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE).

The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), India’s first attempt to use technology as an educational tool, celebrates its 40th anniversary this month

“The greatest communication experiment in history,” exulted Arthur Clarke, renowned science fiction author. He was referring to the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), which celebrated the 40th anniversary of its launch on August 1. The U.S. developed the technology for a powerful direct broadcasting satellite using a large nine-metre antenna — which opened in space like an umbrella — but had little use for it in a country already saturated with TV coverage. India needed to take the reach of a communication network to rural areas. SITE was where India’s need intersected with American technology, where its problems found a solution.

Marking the first major India-U.S. partnership in space, SITE used National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s first direct broadcasting satellite to beam television programmes to remote Indian villages. Antennae measuring 3 metres, a far cry from today’s direct-to-home (DTH) dish antennae, were used to receive signals.

In 1975, when television was a rarity even in urban India, TV sets for community viewing were set up in schools or Panchayat centres in 2,400 villages in six States — Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan.

The selected villages — in the most backward and inaccessible parts of the States — included some in Orissa with no electricity where television sets were powered using automobile batteries. Villagers were able to watch programmes related to health, agriculture and development, in their own language. In addition, SITE also broadcast education programmes for children, also organising a special training programme for as many as 50,000 school teachers. Also linked to SITE was the Kheda Communications Project, India’s first rural community project in Kheda, Gujarat, which aided many innovations in communication.

SITE epitomised Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s commitment to an application-oriented approach where technology would be used to solve the real problems of the country. The choice of the areas and the villages for TV sets was indicative of its dedication to use technology to help the most disadvantaged.

SITE used a foreign satellite, but the hardware — like the earth stations for uplinking programmes to the satellite; the TV sets; and the special direct-reception equipment — was designed and made in India. Producing programmes relevant to to villagers — and in four languages — was also no easy task. Maintaining television sets and sophisticated equipment in remote areas posed extraordinary challenges, as did the involvement of many organisations and State governments.

For villagers who had never seen television before, it proved to be a magic box that produced sound and image. However, the initial amazement soon gave way to the easy acceptance that often comes with familiarity — similar to that seen in the case of mobile phones today. Yet, in the early days, the fascination and wonder experienced by the villagers was truly exhilarating.

SITE was intended as an experiment that would provide inputs for an operational system, and indeed resulted in much learning that proved invaluable for the Indian National Satellite System (INSAT). A year-long experiment was conducted to assess its impact where studies by experts from various disciplines of social science — like anthropology, psychology, sociology and political science — along with communication experts provided useful insights. These were helpful not just in assessing the impact of SITE, but also in understanding the communication needs of the villagers finding ways to address them.

SITE had been preceded, in 1969, by the launch of Krishi Darshan, a programme on agriculture broadcast using community TV sets to 80 villages around Delhi on the only TV station in the country, Doordarshan. The hypothesis that communication — television in particular — could lead to the adoption of new agricultural practices was first tested through Krishi Darshan with success. SITE further tested and validated the feasibility of direct television reception in remote areas, culminating in an operational system.

In the early stages of SITE, the ISRO campus in Ahmedabad was host to an eclectic band of people, young and old, never seen before — or since — in space organisations anywhere in the world. It included engineers, scientists, social scientists, film makers, folk culture experts and playwrights. Their collective efforts marked creative team work at its zenith.

It is noteworthy that an overwhelming majority of ISRO’s SITE team was in its 20s, ample evidence that young people, when properly motivated and empowered, can deliver results. The project provided them with a useful guide to handling challenges, criticism and being professional in managing a team.

SITE weathered many a storm. Credit for its success needs to go to the extraordinary leaders and the very young team associated with it. They were instrumental in launching it on the chosen date of August 1, 1975 and running it despite obstacles. It touched and impacted, for ever and for the better, the lives of millions of rural people; it was also evidence of India’s technological prowess. Equally important was the fact that it changed the lives and sensibilities of each one of us who was part of this glorious adventure.

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Ratan Tata to inaugurate technology incubator centre on 'T-Hub' September 7

HYDERABAD: Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus and noted industrialist Ratan Tatawill inaugurate the country's largest technology incubator center 'T-Hub' here on September 7, a senior Telangana official said today. 

"Our Technology Incubation centre 'T-Hub' which is meant to promote start-ups and innovators is going to be inaugurated on September 7 by Rata Tata," Secretary, Information & Communications Technology (ITC), Jayesh Ranjan told reporters. 

"The first phase of T-hub, country's biggest technology incubation centre, spread over 60,000 square feet will accommodate 800 start-ups. And in 2018 when we are hosting World IT Congress in Hyderabad, we want to be ready with the second phase of T-Hub, which would be much more bigger one with built-up space of 300,000 sq ft and can host 5,000 start-ups," he said. 

Telangana is going to become one of the leading states in the country which will promote innovations, he said. 

Telangana government is taking up the country's biggest technology incubator with collaborative efforts from the Indian School of Business (ISB), the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Hyderabad) and NALSAR University of Law besides various other organisations. 

These institutions would assist start ups with management, technology and legal aspects of setting up and running a venture
.

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Cloud ERP Provider FinancialForce Raises $110M Led by Technology Crossover Ventures

FinancialForce.com, a cloud ERP provider on the Salesforce1 Platform, has announced that it has raised $110 million in funding led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) with participation from existing investor Salesforce Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds for product development, sales, marketing, alliances and customer support. In April 2014, it received $50 million from Advent International. Previously, the firm had secured $14.5 million series B round in 2012, $11.8 million series B round in 2010 and an undisclosed amount in series A funding in October 2009. The firm had also acquired two companies till date including Less Software and Vana Workforce.

The company recently reported a 91% annual subscription run rate growth and a $50 million revenue run rate. It also increased its global headcount by more than 80 percent, from 250 employees at the end of 2013 to more than 450 at the end of 2014.

Founded in 2009, FinancialForce ERP equips customer-centric businesses with a unified platform that delivers ERP and CRM on a single cloud. Its Financial Management, Human Capital Management (HCM), Professional Services Automation (PSA), and Supply Chain Management (SCM) apps allow businesses to increase the speed at which they operate. San Francisco-based company is backed by Salesforce, Technology Crossover Ventures, Advent International and UNIT4.

With nearly $10 billion in capital raised, Technology Crossover Ventures has invested in more than 200 technology companies including Expedia, Facebook, GoDaddy, Netflix, VICE Media, Zillow and More. Salesforce has invested in more than 100 enterprise cloud startups since 2009.

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The cyborg revolution: Technology’s body modifications

The primary goal of technology should be to improve our lives in some way. So far that has seen us embrace computers, the Internet, smartphones and most recently wearable gadgets. However, many are predicting that the future will not see us hold or wear technology, but have it directly implanted into our bodies.

Read more: Cyborg activist Neil Harbisson wins battle to have ‘eyeborg’ on passport photo

Already, the transhumanism movement is seeing technology implants gain greater acceptance, but many still feel uneasy about the ethics involved when we attempt  to improve our bodies artificially. In response to the advances made in body modification technology, we’ve looked at five high-profile examples below.

Replacement limbs

For many years, individuals have used technology to help solve medical problems. Artificial pacemakers have been implanted into humans since the 1950s and prosthetic limbs, in their most basic form, have been used for centuries.

Now limb replacements are becoming increasingly advanced, with the DEKA arm being one of the most notable. Developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army Research Office, DEKA can carry out a series of complex movements controlled by electrical signals sent from electrodes connected to the user’s muscles. The electrodes transmit signals to the arm, which can carry out 10 different types of movements.

The DEKA arm has given those that are missing limbs the ability to perform delicate tasks, such as grasping a bottle, which wouldn’t be possible with traditional prosthetics.

Neil Harbisson’s antenna

Self-confessed cyborg Neil Harbisson is one of the most famous exponents of body modifications and has used technology to overcome the extreme form of colour blindness that has afflicted him since birth.

Harbisson is unable to see colour at all and so decided to implant a permanently attached antenna into his skull in 2004. The “Eyeborg,” as it is known, allows him to experience colours by translating them into sounds. An Internet connection also allows Harbisson to receive phone calls directly into his skull and his activism has seen the British government recognise his as the world’s first cyborg.

Deep brain stimulation

Deep brain stimulation involves the insertion of electrodes into three target sites within the brain and has proven hugely effective at tackling Parkinson’s disease.

The electrodes are connected to a neurostimulator placed under the skin in the chest or stomach area, which delivers high-frequency stimulation to specific areas of the brain. This changes some of the brain’s electrical signals associated with Parkinson’s and is often used in partnership with medication.

The procedure is working so well that it could remain the primary surgical treatment for the condition for the next two to three decades.

Security chips

A number of companies around the world are now offering employees the opportunity of having computer chips implanted into their hands to help them in their place of work.

The radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip is inserted under the skin, following only a brief moment of pain, and can be put to various uses. Most often, the chip is used to unlock doors, providing a more secure solution than employee ID cards.

Others have placed an electronic business card on the chip, which can be accessed via a smartphone, or use the implant to access their car or computer.

A Swedish company called Dangerous Things even allows you to buy a DIY chip implanting kit that means you can use the technology in whatever way you want.

The Circadia 1.0

Sticking with the DIY theme, biohacker Tim Cannon has developed a Fitbit style device that is implanted under the skin.

The Circadia 1.0 is not the most elegant implant, clearly protruding from underneath Cannon’s skin, but it does offer some personal utility. The device can be connected to appliances in his home and is programmable via tablet. In fact, by monitoring various health metrics, the Circadia 1.0 can automatically provide Cannon with a helping hand.

“So if, for example, I’ve had a stressful day, the Circadia will communicate that to my house and will prepare a nice relaxing atmosphere for when I get home: Dim the lights, let in a hot bath,” he explained.

Read more: MIT develops seven fingered robot hand

While consumers may not quite be ready for Cannon’s rough and ready approach to technological implants (he inserted the Circadia 1.0 without any anaesthetic), with some refinement similar body modification could become widespread in the not too distant future.

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