by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Large Enterprise, Markets, Technology
Bengaluru : As firms’ appetite for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) grows, 71 per cent Indian organisations are looking at increased process automation as a key benefit which in turn is expected to spike spends on this technology over the next 18 months, a report said on Thursday.
The Intel India commissioned report, undertaken by the International Data Corporation (IDC) that surveyed 194 Indian organisations across sectors, said that nearly 75 per cent of the firms surveyed anticipate benefits in business process efficiency and employee productivity with the use of AI.
While 64 per cent of the respondents believe that this technology can empower them in revenue augmentation through better targeting of offers and improved sales processes, 76 per cent of the companies are or believe that they will face a shortage of skilled personnel to harness the power of AI.
“This research is a small step towards comprehending this knowledge, and enabling companies, such as ours, shape strategy and move ahead in the right direction,” Prakash Mallya, Managing Director, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel India, said in a statement.
Intel currently powers 97 per cent of data centre servers running AI workloads worldwide and has been investing in the development of the ecosystem in India.
“Indian enterprises have been quick to adopt AI in the recent past, with nearly one in five organisations (22.2 per cent) across the four verticals surveyed implementing the technology in some way. This number is anticipated to soar considerably by mid-2019 with nearly seven in 10 firms (68.6 per cent) anticipated to deploy (it),” the company said.
However, concerns around adoption of AI continue with high cost of solutions, acute shortage of skilled professionals, unclear return on investment and cybersecurity emerging as the key hindrances.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Investing, Large Enterprise
New Delhi : Around 80 Indian companies in Germany employing a total workforce of 27,400 generated combined revenues of Euro 11.4 billion in 2016, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said on Sunday citing its joint study conducted on the matter.
Based on interviews with leading Indian chief executives, the study, done by the Bertelsmann Foundation, Ernst & Young (EY) and CII, showed that, since 2010, nearly 140 major investment projects by Indian companies have been initiated in Germany.
“This includes FDI (foreign direct investment) announcements as well as M&As (merger and acquisitions),” a CII release said here.
“Between 2010 and 2016, Germany was the second-largest recipient of Indian FDI in Europe with 96 projects,” it said.
According to the study, the top sectors for investment include automobiles, metals and metal processing, professional, technical and scientific services, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, electrotechnics and machine building.
The study found that Indian companies in Germany currently generate nearly 70 per cent of their turnover in the labour intensive sectors of metals (40 per cent) and automotives (29 per cent). Major players in these sectors are Tata Steel, Hindalco industries and Sona Autocomp.
“The Indian IT industry accounts for a revenue share of nine percent,” CII said.
Access to innovation and technology are important factors that influence the decision to invest in Germany, according to 80 per cent of the CEOs surveyed.
This is borne out by the M&A activity over the past six years, CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said in the statement.
“In fact, one-fifth of the acquisitions made by Indians were found to be in the automotive supplier sector and one-third in the mechanical engineering sector,” he said.
“Moreover, the planned merger of the steel businesses of Tata Group and ThyssenKrupp has taken Indo-German cooperation to a whole new level,” he added.
According to Murali Nair of Bertelsmann Stiftung, Germany should put more focus on government incentives in innovation, such as tax relief for depreciation, in order to encourage long-term commitment of foreign investors.
Besides, 90 per cent of surveyed Indian CEOs were of the opinion that Britain’s exit from the European Union will increase the attractiveness of Germany as an investment location and will help increase the volume and diversity of Indian investments in the country.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Large Enterprise, Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, Technology
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
New Delhi : Faster adoption of Microsoft Office 365 and made for India ‘Kaizala’ app are helping several Indian enterprises — from banking to healthcare — unlock their true potential and transform digitally, India-born Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said here on Tuesday.
Addressing the India Today Conclave in the capital, Nadella said that in the world full of immense possibilities with disrupting technologies changing the business models, Microsoft has helped the State Bank of India (SBI) take a giant leap to Cloud and modernise its workplace.
“We are thrilled to partner with SBI on their digital transformation as they harness the Intelligent Cloud and build new digital capability to empower their employees; engage customers in new ways and transform their products and services, while maintaining security, trust and compliance with industry regulations,” Nadella said.
The SBI has chosen Office 365, the cloud-powered productivity solution, from Microsoft to improve communication and collaboration among its workforce.
This is one of the largest deployments of Office 365 in India, spanning SBI’s countrywide network of 23,423 branches, enabling 263,000 employees and servicing more than 500 million customer accounts.
“In the mobile-first and mobile-only country like India, the ‘Kaizala’ app is transforming Indian firms, from retail to healthcare, how they connect with customers and partners efficiently,” the Microsoft executive noted.
Microsoft ‘Kaizala’ has seen significant adoption among firms such as YES Bank, Apollo Telemedicine, United Phosphorous Limited and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, who are currently piloting the solution for their internal teams.
The Andhra Pradesh government is also using ‘Kaizala’ for real time governance.
Using ‘Kaizala’, firms can connect with their employees and the extended value chain.
The product offers a simple and familiar chat interface and goes beyond to make everyone more productive using Surveys, Polls, Jobs, Meetings and other actions, right in your chats.
“In this era of Intelligent Edge and Intelligent Cloud – and not to forget Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will drive this era — we need to make a great sense of humongous data that is around us to build right digital capabilities,” Nadella told the audience.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Large Enterprise
By Venkatachari Jagannathan,
Nordborg (Denmark) : Danish company Danfoss A/S is looking at the Indian automobile sector in a major way and is in talks with some automobile makers for providing its solutions for hybrid cars, said a top official.
The 5.3 billion euros turnover privately held company is a world leader in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) sector. The company’s business segments are classified under Power Solutions, Cooling, Drives and Heating.
“We are looking at anybody making hybrid cars. We have power module solutions that have 15 times more life than others,” Kim Fausing, President and CEO told IANS.
While Danfoss is having talks with Indian companies, Fausing declined to reveal their names.
“We have proprietary technology. Already our solutions have been put in around 25 million cars in Europe. We are looking at hybrid and electric cars. We work with German auto makers and US OEMs (original equipment manufacturers),” Fausing added.
Danfoss has invested in a power module plant in the US at an outlay of around $100 million. The company is also mulling to invest in China, a major market for its products.
“We bring in innovation in energy efficient solutions. We focus on application of an equipment and build efficiency in that,” he added.
Fausing said Danfoss has big focus in the American and Chinese auto sector.
The Danish company makes power modules for inverters and others and is part of its drives business.
Danfoss’ power modules are used in farm machines with hydraulic motors, earthmoving equipment and others.
According to a Danfoss official, automobile sector is a related business for the company and is part of its drives business.
For instance, batteries of electric cars should be cooled quickly for fast charging and Danfoss has the solution as it is a major in the HVAC segment.
The Indian government is for electric mobility. Recently Energy Efficiency Services Ltd a joint venture company of undertaking coming under the Indian power ministry decided to buy 10,000 electric vehicles.
Fausing said Danfoss is also looking out for acquisitions in India in the technology space.
Speaking about Danfoss’ operations in India, Fausing said India figures in the top eight-nine market for the company globally.
“For us India is important like China and the US. India can be top three markets for Danfoss after US and China,” Fausing said.
Major customers for Danfoss in India are Blue Star, Mahindra and others.
On Danfoss global business, Fausing said the group logged 13 per cent growth of which nine per cent is organic and the balance four per cent is from acquisitions.
“There is a positive momentum and the dynamics of the market is picking up,” he added.
He said the company has changed its old structure and now has new global executive programme with broader leadership team.
Danfoss is transforming its business with digital agenda.
Fausing said Danfoss is investing heavily in its information technology backbone to get data on real time basis, internet of things (IoT), big data, artificial intelligence.
Queried about the possible disruptive technologies that may take down Danfoss and others, Fausing said he does not foresee any threat that would make the company irrelevant.
He said the company is investing in technology and acquiring technology companies.
(Venkatachari Jagannathan is in Denmark at the invitation of Danfoss A/S. He can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Emerging Businesses, Large Enterprise
Arvind Panagariya
New Delhi : Enterprises in India take considerably less time in obtaining approvals than reported by the World Bank data, the NITI Aayog said on Tuesday.
According to the NITI Aayog’s “Ease of Doing Business” survey, which covered over 3,000 enterprises, the average time taken to set up a business in India was 118 days. For construction permits, it took even lesser time with an average of 112 days, the survey report said.
“In some states such as Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, getting a construction permit takes even fewer days,” the Aayog said in a statement.
However, according to the World Bank’s 2017 Doing Business report, the time taken for getting construction permits was 190 days, it said, adding: “Thus, it appears that the actual experience of enterprises is better than the survey results of the World Bank.”
“Similarly, on average, it took enterprises about half the time to resolve legal disputes as was reported in the World Bank Survey,” the NITI Aayog statement said.
While the World Bank Survey focuses on industry leaders from Delhi and Mumbai, the survey by the NITI Aayog covers firms, start-ups and experts from almost all states and union territories in India.
However, there is a wide variation across states with Madhya Pradesh and Bihar taking 41 and 43 days respectively to get construction permits, while Assam took 270 days.
“The survey indicates that the government’s efforts to improve business environment are showing results on the ground,” the NITI Aayog said.
It added that the experiences of start-ups started since 2014 suggested a significant improvement in doing business.
“Newer and younger firms take less time in obtaining approvals, highlighting a favourable business environment. Young firms report that most regulatory processes do not constitute a major obstacle to their doing business,” it said.
It added that enterprises in high-growth states are significantly less likely to report major or very severe obstacles in land and construction related approvals, environmental approvals and water and sanitation availability as compared to enterprises located in low-growth states.
“Enterprises in high-growth states also report taking less time on average for nearly all aspects of doing business,” it said.
The NITI Aayog survey, conducted between April 2015 and April 2016, only takes inputs from firms in the formal manufacturing sector. It does not cover unorganized manufacturing and the services sectors that constitute the vast majority in India.
While the World Bank Survey covers 10 parameters handled by the states and the central government, this survey primarily deals with issues handled by the state governments.
—IANS
