by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Technology
Mumbai : There has been a spurt in the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across industries in India and cloud infrastructure and rapid deployment of intelligent Cloud services will further drive AI adoption in the country, Microsoft India said on Wednesday.
In a white paper titled “Age of Intelligence,” Microsoft said the focus is to create modern mobile infrastructure, skill up the workforce and reduce data costs and cross-industry collaboration, thus extending information connectivity and digital services to the underserved segments of the population.
“Our ambition is to enable a human-centered approach to AI. India is currently at an inflection point in the adoption of AI,” said Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India as the company unveiled the white paper at the Nasscom Technology and Leadership Forum (NTLF) 2019 here.
“Building on the four foundational pillars — enabling digital transformation across industries, forging coalitions for innovation, building a future-ready workforce and creating sustained societal impact — will unlock and accelerate the potential of AI,” Maheshwari added.
The white paper outlines challenges and opportunities with respect to AI and how balanced and forward looking government policies, technological advancements including growing Internet penetration and connectivity will help reap benefits of digital transformation in the years to come.
According to Microsoft, the company is busy democratising AI and is making the technology available on Azure Cloud to empower developers and institutions in solving difficult problems.
“AI enables organizations to make better informed decisions by making it easy to derive insights from data, helping them expand and improve customer engagement and experiences, optimize operations and improve offerings,” read the white paper.
India is digitally ready for a comprehensive AI framework aligned to industries’ long-term strategy.
“With the size of the market and opportunity for growth, it’s imperative to implement AI for India that brings economic, societal and inclusive growth,” Microsoft noted.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Entrepreneurship, Markets, Startup Basics, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
Sydney : India, which saw a tremendous growth in the startup space in the last couple of years, is now witnessing a growth in the business-to-business (B2B) tech startups coming up with innovative ideas to deal with local problems, says a top Microsoft executive.
“The Indian startup ecosystem is on a growth trajectory, riding on an innovative fleet of young entrepreneurs who are building products that can help solve real-life issues,” said Annie Parker, Global Head of Microsoft for Startups, here.
The Australian startups pioneer who joined Microsoft last year to help scale the company’s startup dreams is bullish on India when it comes to innovation in the B2B space led by incredible engineers and technologists.
“We have seen the rise in B2C startups in India and now is the time for more B2B tech solutions with country-specific problem in focus. The local startup community in India is thriving,” Parker told IANS on the sidelines of the Microsoft ‘Imagine Cup’ Asia Regional Finals 2019.
When it comes to finding right a mix of talent for B2B startups, Parker said India has no dearth at all.
“You can’t really walk in Bengaluru without bumping into a software engineer,” chuckled Parker, adding that there were tremendous growth opportunities in the country.
Regarding Microsoft’s startup programme, she said the company can help B2B startups in two key ways.
“The first way we can help is by providing technical support as we have extraordinary engineers all over the world who are leaders in the field.
“The second way we can help is within Microsoft ‘ScaleUp’ and the startup team more broadly,” she informed.
The Microsoft ScaleUp programme (previously known as Microsoft Accelerator) is designed for Series A startups and offers access to sales, marketing and technical support.
It helps enterprise-ready companies gain access to top Microsoft partners and customers, make valuable business connections, and access a strong network of technical knowledge.
Microsoft last month announced its corporate venture fund M12 will invest in Indian startups with a funding size of $2 million to $10 million. Rashmi Gopinath, partner at M12, is leading the fund’s investment portfolio in the country.
M12 also announced its first India investment in the healthcare SaaS (software-as-a-service) startup called “Innovaccer”.
According to reports, venture capital investments in Indian tech B2B startups have been trending upwards, with over $3.09 billion raised in equity funding across 415 deals in 2018 — 28 per cent more than $2.41 billion in 2017.
Parker said that eligible startups partake in the immersive programme at Microsoft’s eight global locations (including Bengaluru), followed by structured help from a dedicated team of success managers.
“We nurture B2B startups for their customers. Our focus is to support late-stage startups and help them with right set of technical and go-to-market approach so that these can flourish further,” said Parker, adding that creating the start-ups of tomorrow will finally lead to having innovative future partners for Microsoft.
(Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Technology, World
By Nishant Arora,
Sydney : Three Indian teams are among the 12 finalists who will vie for the top slot in the Microsoft Imagine Cup Asia Regional Semifinals here and move one step closer to win the grand prize of $100,000 at the world championship in the US.
First place at the Asia competition will secure $15,000 and a spot in the world championship to be able to win the grand price of $100,000 at Microsoft’s Redmond-based headquarters later this year, while the first runners-up will get $5,000 and the second runners-up $1,000.
The team from Faridabad-based Manav Rachna Institute of Research and Studies has developed “Caeli” — a smart automated anti-pollution and drug delivery mask specifically designed for asthmatic and chronic respiratory patients.
Caeli implements breakthrough features to improve the quality of life for respiratory patients living in polluted areas like in north India and especially in the Delhi-NCR region.
The team from Tamil Nadu-based Vellore Institute of Technology has designed “Spot” which allows you to recognise packaged foods and check if it contains a certain ingredient or exhibits a certain character.
The third team from Bengaluru-based R.V. College of Engineering has designed “RVSAFE”, a one-stop solution for effectively handling any kind of disasters be it natural or man-made.
Disasters leave behind a trail of destruction, adversely affecting human life, and property.
The loss caused by disasters can be significantly reduced with better communication and proper management.
Considered as the “Olympics of Technology”, Imagine Cup is a global annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft.
Over the past 10 years, more than 1.65 million students from more than 190 countries have participated in the “Imagine Cup”.
In addition to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain and Machine Learning (ML) have been key technologies that students focused on for the competition.
Last year, “Team DrugSafe” project from R.V. College of Engineering won the award under the Big Data category at the Microsoft Imagine Cup world championship.
This time, the three Indian teams are facing some tough competition from innovative solutions designed by students from China, South Korea, New Zealand, Malaysia and others.
(Nishant Arora is in Sydney at an invitation from Microsoft. He can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Technology, World
Microsoft President Brad Smith
San Francisco : Microsoft President Brad Smith has shot down calls to stop selling facial recognition tech to governments, saying the move would be “cruel” as it could hamper good work such as diagnosing rare diseases.
According to a report in Business Insider late Sunday, Smith said the move would be “cruel in the humanitarian effect”.
This came after last month over 85 human rights groups wrote to Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, demanding the companies should stop selling facial recognition software to the governments as it would lead to surveillance.
“I do not understand an argument that companies should avoid all licensing to any government agency for any purpose whatsoever.
“A sweeping ban on all government use clearly goes too far and risks being cruel in its humanitarian effect,” Smith, also Microsoft’s Chief Legal Officer, was quoted as saying.
In a blog post in December, Smith had said that given the potential for abuse of the fast advancing facial recognition technology, governments across the world need to start adopting laws to regulate this technology.
“Unless we act, we risk waking up five years from now to find that facial recognition services have spread in ways that exacerbate societal issues,” Smith wrote.
“The time for action has arrived,” he said, adding that the industry must also exercise restraint while using this technology.
Speaking of the benefits of the technology, the Microsoft President mentioned that police in New Delhi recently trialled facial recognition technology and identified almost 3,000 missing children in four days.
Similarly, historians in the US have used the technology to identify the portraits of unknown soldiers in Civil War photographs taken in the 1860s.
“Researchers successfully used facial recognition software to diagnose a rare, genetic disease in Africans, Asians and Latin Americans,” he added.
However, he did warn that widespread use of this technology can lead to new intrusions into people’s privacy.
“The use of facial recognition technology by a government for mass surveillance can encroach on democratic freedoms,” Smith added.
Microsoft is one of several companies playing a leading role in developing facial recognition technology.
The company, Smith said, would start adopting new principles to manage the issues surrounding facial recognition technology in the first quarter of 2019.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Large Enterprise, Markets, Technology
San Francisco : Riding on stupendous growth in its commercial Cloud services, Microsoft logged a revenue of $32.5 billion — up 12 per cent from a year ago — and a net income of $8.4 billion for the quarter ending on December 31.
The commercial Cloud business registered $9 billion in sales for the quarter, for a $36 billion annual run rate.
“Our strong commercial Cloud results reflect our deep and growing partnerships with leading companies in every industry including retail, financial services, and healthcare,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
“We are delivering differentiated value across the cloud and edge as we work to earn customer trust every day.”
The revenue from Surface laptops increased 39 per cent. The company released Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 during the quarter, along with Surface Studio 2 and Surface Headphones.
Revenue in personal computing was $13 billion and Surface is now almost a $2 billion business for Microsoft.
“Our solid execution delivered another strong quarter, with commercial cloud revenue growing 48 per cent year-over-year to $9 billion,” said Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft.
The revenue in productivity and business Processes was $10.1 billion and increased 13 per cent.
“Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 11 per cent, driven by Office 365 Commercial revenue growth of 34 per cent,” said the company.
Office 365 consumer subscriber base has now hit 33.3 million.
Gaming revenue increased 8 per cent, with Xbox software and services revenue growth of 31 per cent.
LinkedIn revenue increased 29 per cent while Dynamics products and Cloud services revenue increased 17 per cent, driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 51 per cent.
—IANS
