by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Large Enterprise, Marketing Basics, Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, Technology
New Delhi : E-commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart will be able to make airborne delivery of products to customers in India using drones enabled by technology being developed by the country’s aviation sector, a minister announced on Thursday.
“E-commerce deliveries using drones are certainly going to be possible in India. Companies like Amamzon and Flipkart can deliver products with the tecnological developments we are seeing in the aviation eco system,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said at the Aero Expo 2017 here organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday invited public comments on the draft rules on use of drones, including for commercial purposes, which the aviation regulator hopes to finalise by the year-end. Drones have been classified under five categories based on their weight.
“Aviation is at the cutting edge of technology be it in avionics, software..throwing open the drone industry to experimentation and innovation will really benefit India,” Sinha said.
Noting the various uses of drone technology in areas like oil and gas prospecting, agriculture and in taking pictures, Sinha said use of drones as “air rickshaws” for travelling around a 100-km radius could be a viable proposition.
A few years ago, a drone had been used to deliver a packet to a location at a multi-storeyed building Mumbai. The local police, however, described it as an unauthorised flight in violation of rules.
Noting that this government had brought in the National Civil Aviation Policy, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said that the sector had notched up 20 crore passenger trips this year, which exceeded the Railways’ 13 crore passengers in their upper class coaches.
“Our journey, however, has only begun because only 3 per cent of Indians actually fly. With our efforts to increase connectivity, we are aiming at 30-40 per cent,” the minister added.
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu was among the chief guests at the event and released a knowledge paper on the sector.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Marketing Basics, Markets, Online Marketing, Sales, Technology
San Francisco : Commerce and Cloud computing giant Amazon has said it has received 238 proposals from cities and regions vying to host its second headquarters.
According to a CNNMoney report, the tech giant said on Monday that the proposals span across 54 states, provinces, districts and territories across North America.
Amazon announced plans for a second headquarters in September, sending cities into a frenzy.
The company expects to invest more than $5 billion to build the facility and will create as many as 50,000 “high-paying” jobs.
Amazon says the new headquarters, dubbed HQ2, will be a “full equal” to its Seattle campus.
The company estimates that its investments in Seattle from 2010 through 2016 resulted in an additional $38 billion to the city’s economy.
The report said that in order to woo Amazon, cities made elaborate and creative gestures.
While Kansas Mayor Sly James wrote five-star reviews for 1,000 random items on Amazon’s website, Tucson sent Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos a giant cactus, and New York City lit up landmarks like the Empire State Building in “Amazon orange”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Marketing Basics, Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, Technology
San Francisco : Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft have teamed up to launch an open-source and deep learning interface ‘Gluon’ that will help developers to deploy machine learning models across several platforms.
According to a report in ZDNet, the interface would give developers a place where they can prototype, build, train and deploy machine learning models.
“Today’s reality is that building and training machine learning models requires a great deal of heavy lifting and specialised expertise,” Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President of Amazon AI was quoted as saying.
“We created the Gluon interface so building neural networks and training models can be as easy as building an app,” Sivasubramanian added.
The companies claim that ‘Gluon’ is a concise, easy-to- understand programming interface compared to other offerings, and it gives developers a chance to quickly prototype and experiment with neural network models without sacrificing performance.
“We believe it is important for the industry to work together and pool resources to build technology that benefits the broader community,” added Eric Boyd, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft AI and Research.
“Machine learning has the ability to transform the way we work, interact and communicate. To make this happen we need to put the right tools in the right hands and the ‘Gluon’ interface is a step in this direction,” Boyd added.
In August, Microsoft and Amazon came to an agreement wherein Cortana users would have access to Alexa and vice-versa.
According to a report in the New York Times, the two rival tech firms were reportedly coordinating behind the scenes for the past year to make artificial intelligent assistants Alexa and Cortana communicate with each other.
The partnership will allow people to summon Cortana using Alexa, and vice versa, by the end of the year.
In simpler words, someone using an Alexa device will have to say “Alexa, open Cortana” to get to talk to Microsoft’s digital assistant, and someone using Cortana will have to say “Cortana, open Alexa” to talk to Amazon’s.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Markets, Online Marketing, SMEs, Technology
Bengaluru : Amazon on Thursday launched its most advanced e-book reader ‘Kindle Oasis’ that features company’s highest-resolution ‘Paperwhite Display’ and is the first waterproof (IPX8) device.
The all-new Kindle Oasis is available for pre-order for Rs 21,999 for the 8GB model and Rs 28,999 for the 32GB model (WiFi + free 3G). The device will start shipping from November 13.
‘Kindle Oasis’ has a battery life measured in weeks and has fast-charging capability that allows it to go from zero to fully-charged in less than two hours.
“Ten years ago, we introduced our first Kindle with the mission of delivering any book every written in 60 seconds or less,” said Dave Limp, Senior Vice President, Amazon Devices, in a statement.
“With a larger 7-inch, 300 ppi display, waterproof design, the all-new ‘Kindle Oasis’ is our most advanced Kindle ever. Its thin, light, and waterproof design allows readers to stay engaged in the author’s world in even more ways and places than ever before,” added Limp.
With 7-inch 300 ppi display, the device fits over 30 per cent more words per page and it has the fastest page turns of any Kindle.
The crisp and laser-quality text reads like paper with uniform display lighting and no glare, even in bright sunlight.
It has a 3.4mm display that features strongest cover glass and a new aluminium back. ‘Kindle Oasis’ can be immersed in up to two meters of fresh water for up to 60 minutes.
Customers can also buy covers that open like a book, automatically waking the device when opened and putting it to sleep when closed.
The water-safe fabric covers can be purchased for Rs 2,999 and come in indigo, charcoal and sandstone colours. The premium leather covers are available for Rs 3,999 and come in black ad merlot.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodities, Commodities News, Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, SMEs, Technology
New Delhi : In a bid to reach out to customers globally, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) major Dabur India on Tuesday said it has tied up with global e-commerce giant Amazon to launch around 30 products on the platform.
The company said under this collaboration, Amazon will help to take around 30 products from its popular range such as Vatika hair oil, Meswak toothpaste, Red toothpaste and Chyawanprash to consumers in the US.
“We are starting with about 30 products… starting with oils, chyawanprash, honey and many others, and soon will be populated with another 80 products which are in the pipeline and are being discussed with the Amazon team and our team locally,” Krishan Kumar Chutani, Executive Director – Consumer Care Business, Dabur India, said here in an interaction with reporters.
Chutani added that the rest of the 80 products will be launched in another six-to-eight months.
According to Dabur India, it will also offer an exclusive range of products specially created for Amazon’s global customers.
—IANS
