by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Large Enterprise, Marketing Basics, Markets, Medium Enterprise, Online Marketing, SMEs, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
New York : Buoyed by the demands from sectors like e-commerce, banking, telecom, government and other enterprises to store and scale up Big Data, global chip maker Intel is ready to help India achieve high-performance computing.
According to Lisa Spelman, Vice President and General Manager, Intel Xeon Processors and Data Center Marketing, Intel, the sheer size and scale of the country has always impressed her and the company with its next-generation processor portfolio is bullish on its future in the country when it comes to managing massive sets of data.
“The government has done an impressive amount of discussion in the area of high-performance computing. There is a talented developers’ community in India. Intel is ready to help the country achieve its high-computing goals when it comes to handling Big Data across the spectrum,” Spelman told IANS here.
Intel reported a record revenue of $14.8 billion in the second quarter this year.
The growth was witnessed in client computing (which was up 12 per cent) and data-centric businesses (which was up 16 per cent).
The Intel Data Centre business delivers almost half of Intel’s operating margin and is expected to grow revenue at over 15 per cent through 2018.
According to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, the data centre is central to the company’s strategy and is a remarkable opportunity.
“By 2021, we expect the data centre to be a $65 billion silicon opportunity, and we’re less than 40 per cent of the total available segment today,” Krzanich said during the investors’ call recently.
To see its data centre business accelerate, India is a natural choice for the company.
Spelman is positive on the improved technological prowess and the presence of right talent in India.
“The several initiatives that the government and enterprises are offering today to help the people is remarkable. We have a strong engineering workforce and research and development facilities in the country to help the government realise its dreams,” she added.
In a short time, the Intel India Development Centre in Bengaluru has become a significant international design and development centre for the company.
The IIDC is Intel’s largest non-manufacturing site outside the United States, with over 2,500 engineers focusing on Intel’s core areas like application software and solutions, chip sets, communication software, graphic drivers and microprocessor, among others.
The newly-launched Intel ‘Xeon Scalable’ processors offer data centre customers huge performance gains for artificial intelligence (AI) and other data-intensive workloads.
The ‘Xeon Scalable’ processors offer 138 times deep learning performance gains and 113 times inference gains.
This means that the customers can do more inference on general-purpose hardware without the need for specialised accelerators.
The ‘Xeon Scalable’ processors also provide security without compromise.
Most of the top-notch firms like Microsoft, Amazon, Baidu etc are using Xeon processors to handle heavy data workloads.
Intel ‘Xeon Scalable’ processors are uniquely architected for the evolving data centre and network infrastructure.
These processors are designed to support an expanding range of existing and emerging data centre and network workloads, including cloud computing, 5G-ready networks and AI, delivering 2.2 times the performance over its predecessor.
“With this technology, India can leapfrog other mature markets in becoming a leader in the next generation data centre technology adoption,” the top Intel executive said.
Intel is also bullish on infusing AI and machine learning (ML) into its chips.
However, “when it comes to the chip architecture, AI is not yet fully settled and actually needs a broader portfolio,” Spelman noted, adding that Intel is constantly working towards making more efficient, industry-ready AI-enabled microprocessors.
(Nishant Arora is in New York at the invitation of Intel. He can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Media, News, Social Media
By Maeeshat Correspondent,
New Delhi, Sep 22: NDTV, considered to be only or one of very few TV channels which boldly raise public issues and strongly criticize whoever comes in the way while doing so – government or Opposition – is reportedly being sold to a businessman who is very close to BJP.
Strongest critic of the Narendra Modi government for its various decisions, NDTV will sell its 40 per cent share to Ajay Singh, co-founder and owner of SpiceJet who was part of the BJP’s 2014 poll campaign, says The Indian Express. Promoters of the channel senior journalist Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy will have 20 per cent share. Public shareholding in the company stands at around 40 per cent.’
According to The Indian Express which has quoted an unknown source in the channel, Singh, who was OSD of former BJP leader and Cabinet minister Pramod Mahajan, will take control of NDTV along with editorial rights. The total deal is valued at around Rs 600 crore.
However, while SpiceJet has rubbished the report when contacted by the daily, NDTV did not respond to its query.
Recently, CBI had conducted raids at the NDTV promoters for alleged tax evasion. However, the channel had termed the raid as attack on free press.
In various programs, especially its Prime Time hosted by famous journalist Ravish Kumar, the channel would boldly raise public-interest issues when most of other channels were busy in government propaganda or shallow, diversionary issues.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Finance, News
Rupees five hundred
Mumbai:(IANS) Even after the government denied there were any plans to devalue the Indian rupee to shore-up exports, the currency on Thursday fell to its lowest level in the last two weeks at 67.02.
The denial came after a business news channel’s report claimed that the Commerce Ministry planned to propose a round of rupee devaluation to shore-up dwindling exports.
The news report on the proposed devaluation dragged the Indian rupee to 67.07 against a US dollar on Thursday morning, after the currency made some substantial gains and touched an intra-day high of 66.82.
“Dollar/Rupee made a sharp U-turn mid-day as rumours of ‘policy driven’ devaluation made rounds in media outlets,” Anindya Banerjee, Associate Vice President for Currency Derivatives with Kotak Securities, told IANS.
Other currency market observers pointed out that soon after the rupee’s plunge, the country’s central bank intervened. This resulted in rupee paring its early losses.
However, the currency remained volatile and ended the day’s trade on a weak note. The rupee depreciated by 12 paise to 67.02 against a US dollar from its previous close of 66.90 to a greenback.
“Rupee closed weaker as strong US dollar overseas and talk of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) intervention in local markets kept rupee under pressure,” Banerjee said.
On Wednesday, the rupee had strengthened by two paise to 66.90 against a US dollar from its previous close of 66.92 to a greenback on Monday.
Commerce Minister Sitharaman said that she did not make any comment on devaluation of the Indian rupee.
“I had no conversation on devaluation of any currency with any news correspondent,” Commerce and Industry Minister Sitharaman said in a tweet.
“Any quotes/mentions referring to me on this topic baseless.”
On its part, Finance Ministry said that the value of rupee is determined by the market forces and that there were no plan to change this policy.
“Reports that the government wants to devalue the rupee are false,” Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das told reporters.
Banerjee added that: “We find little substance in the news as rupee remains a market-driven exchange rate, and unlike currencies which are pegged, like Chinese Yuan, it is not easy to devalue or appreciate a currency as per the whims and fancies of the policy-makers.”
Even the stock markets were impacted by the rupee’s sudden fall. Both the key indices closed on a flat-to-positive note after a volatile session of trade.
According to Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, the CNX Nifty traded with sideways sentiments throughout the session on short covering and volatile USD/INR futures prices.
“Firm USD/INR futures prices pressurised the nifty price movement throughout the session,” Desai said.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami
Jammu and Kashmir needs a coalition of regional parties to keep out the BJP, the CPI-M’s lone legislator in the state says, however adding that he doesn’t expect this to happen anytime soon.
Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami said his party always knew that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition was “an alliance of opportunists”. “Their so-called ‘Agenda of Alliance’ or ‘common minimum programme’ was merely a façade to gain power,” Tarigami told IANS over the telephone amid continuing political impasse in the state.
“Now, after (Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed) Sayeed’s demise, they are finding it difficult to re-enforce the alliance as the PDP-BJP combine has no common ground to rule, their agenda is ambiguous,” said the long-time legislator from Kulgam in south Kashmir.
Ever since her father Mufti Sayeed died in early January, Jammu and Kashmir has been under Governor’s Rule because PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has refused to form a government with the BJP.
Speculation has it that the PDP and the BJP marriage has run into rough weather — although no one says it in so many words. Opposition parties in the state, however, feel the two are indulging in a political drama.
The National Conference, the PDP’s main foe in the Kashmir Valley, wants fresh elections. Tarigama disagrees.
“There is no need for fresh elections and waste taxpayers’ money. The state leaders should set aside their minor differences and come together to form a strong government,” he said. “They should look at the larger picture of the defeating divisive BJP-RSS policy in Kashmir.”
The PDP and the BJP are the largest and second largest parties in splintered Jammu and Kashmir assembly. The National Conference and the Congress are in the third and fourth spots.
“If you look at it, they claimed to have come together to bridge the gap between the three regions of the state. They clearly failed to do that. Or else there wouldn’t be a problem today to re-enforce the alliance.”
Would the CPI-M, with just one member in the 87-seat assembly, support an alliance minus the BJP?
“Yes, but as of now no such thing seems likely to happen,” he said.
“However, if the PDP decides to sever ties with BJP, regional parties can and definitely should come together for the greater good and form a secular and strong government in the state.”
He said the Communist Party of India-Marxist would any day support a government that respects people’s mandate and does not hurt the sentiments of any community.
Tarigami said Governor’s Rule was no answer to Jammu and Kashmir’s problems.
“Governors Rule means Centre’s rule, in other words BJP’s rule.
“The state has witnessed an unprecedented rise in incidents of communally driven violence (with the BJP pulling the strings). Jammu and Kashmir has no future with the BJP (in power).
“Babus cannot address the immediate concerns of the people. They (people) feel disconnected from the state machinery now,” the veteran politician added.
Tarigami argued that he was sure the PDP and the BJP would finally shake hands to again rule the country’s only Muslim-majority state.
“It won’t be surprising for me that the PDP-BJP will form a government. These two parties have always played with people’s sentiments. Their only aim is to gain power at any cost.
“I’m certain they will work out their so-called differences in the coming days to form a new government.”
(Shamshad Ali can be contacted at shamshad.a@ians.in)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | C S R, Corporate
New Delhi:(IANS) The government has identified over 300 cities and towns across nine states for implementing its Housing for All scheme, an official statement said on Sunday.
“Three hundred and five cities and towns have been identified in nine states for beginning construction of houses for the urban poor,” said a statement from the housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry.
The ministry will provide assistance of over Rs.200,000 crore over the next six years to enable two crore urban poor get their own houses, it said.
The selected cities and towns are in Chhattisgarh (36 cities/towns), Gujarat (30), Jammu and Kashmir (19), Jharkhand (15), Kerala (15), Madhya Pradesh (74), Odisha (42), Rajasthan (40) and Telangana (34).
Under the Housing for All initiative, two crore houses are targeted to be built for the poor in urban areas by 2022.
“Within two months of the launch of the Housing for All (Urban) mission, 15 states have signed memoranda of agreement (MoA) with the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, committing themselves to implement six mandatory reforms essential for making a success of the housing mission in urban areas,” the statement said.
The states that have so far agreed to implement the mandatory reforms are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
By signing the MoA, the states have agreed to make necessary changes including scrapping the requirement of separate non-agricultural permission in case the land falls in residential zone earmarked in the city or town master plan, and preparing or amending master plans earmarking land for affordable housing, the statement added.
