by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Arun Kumar
Washington:(IANS) Google’s Indian-American chief executive Sundar Pichai sided with rival Apple in its battle over a court order to help the FBI access information on the encrypted iPhone used by a Pakistani-American shooter in San Bernardino.
Pichai Wedenesday directed followers to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook’s open letter Tuesday night arguing that helping the FBI try to get into the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook would sabotage the security of “tens of millions of American citizens.”
Farook and his Pakistani origin wife, Tashfeen Malik, gunned down 14 people at a social services agency Dec 2 in San Bernardino, California, before being killed in a shootout with police.
FBI Director James Comey said last week that investigators still haven’t been able to get at the information on Farook’s iPhone 5c.
A Riverside, California court Tuesday directed Apple to help FBI crack the phone by developing software to hack into one of its own devices.
In a series of tweets Wednesday evening, Pichai argued that even that would essentially put tech companies in the position of hacking their own customers:
1/5 Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy.2/5 We know that law enforcement and intelligence agencies face significant challenges in protecting the public against crime and terrorism 3/5 We build secure products to keep your information safe and we give law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders 4/5 But that’s wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices & data. Could be a troubling precedent 5/5 Looking forward to a thoughtful and open discussion on this important issue.
The government, Cook contends, is asking Apple to create a “backdoor” to its own security systems.
“Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them,” Cook wrote in a letter published on the company’s website.
“But now the US government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create.”
Reacting to Cook’s stand, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said he was floored that Apple had not volunteered to aid the FBI. “Who do they think they are?” he asked on Fox News.
Speaking to reporters in South Carolina, Senator Marco Rubio said he hoped the tech giant would voluntarily comply with the government’s request, but acknowledged the court order is far from a simple issue.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Technology
By Anirban Ghoshal
San Francisco: (IANS) Internet giant Google’s newly-appointed India-born chief executive Sundar Pichai took to the stage on Tuesday to launch two new smartphones, streaming gadgets and a new Android operating system (OS) to compete with rivals in the mobility space.
In an event on Tuesday that was streamed and watched across the globe, it also introduced upgrades to two apps – Google Play Music and Google Photos.
Before announcing the latest releases – two smartphones Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, second generation Chromecast, an audio Chromecast and a new 10.2-inch tablet named Google Pixel C, Pichai said: “It was great receiving the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Silicon Valley”.
Modi made a two-day trip to the West Coast where he met chief executives and founders of several top technology companies during his five-day US visit.
According to Google, the company has added 400 million new users to the Android ecosystem in one year. “Previously we had one billion 30-day period active users but now we have 1.4 billion 30-day active users,” Pichai said.
“With people in emerging economies moving to smartphones especially with our Android One initiative that offers high-quality yet affordable smartphones, we are on route to meet the target of getting the next billion users online,” he said.
He also said that more Chromebooks were being adopted in the US schools. “Nearly 30,000 Choromebooks were activated in the month of September alone. Our ‘Android for Work’ is also picking up with 10,000 firms already adapting it partially or completely,” he said.
The company’s latest iteration of the Android OS – Marshmallow – was also introduced on Tuesday. Google, which had first announced Android 6.0 Marshmallow at its I/O developer conference earlier this year, said that the new OS will be available to users on Nexus devices.
Although, the new version of Android will look similar, the company has made a number of tweaks to its mobile operating system in order to make using Android phones easier. Also there is a new smart battery-saving mode called ‘Doze’ mode that will put the device into sleep when it’s left unattended for a long time.
The newly launched smartphones, Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X – priced at $499 and $379 respectively, will come with Type-C USB, fingerprint sensor, large 1.55-micron pixels camera sensor and will run the latest Android operating system Marshmallow.
“There’s also a new fingerprint sensor called Nexus Imprint which will also open up fingerprint recognition to the entire app ecosystem,” Google said.
The company also announced a new “Nexus Protect programme” for $89 that would provide two years of coverage for both mechanical problems and accidental damage. Both the phones will be available for pre-order in select countries, including US, Britain, Japan and Ireland starting Tuesday.
The new Pixel C 10.2-inch tablet, which comes with a magnetic keyboard, will also run on Marshmallow. The magnetic keyboard, which will be available as an accessory for $149, connects to the tablet via Bluetooth.
Google said that the keyboard can go without charge for two months. Interestingly, the keyboard which works as a front cover for the tablet charges from its battery.
Earlier, Apple had launched a 13-inch tablet with a keyboard and a stylus to compete with other existing tablets in the market – especially the Microsoft Surface which claims to give laptop-like productivity on the go.
The chief executive also launched two new Chromecast streaming gadgets — one for streaming video and photos to a TV, and another one for streaming music to any audio entertainment hub or standard speakers.
The second generation video Chromecast, which has nearly sold over 20 million devices globally, has undergone a design change to look like a Carrom striker with the HDMI cable sticking out from one end.
The new streaming device comes with three Wi-Fi antennas supporting the newer dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac version, which Google claims, will provide a “more robust, high quality streaming experience for less buffering than you would have found previously with the Chromecast”.
The new Chromecast Audio operates in a similar manner to the video version of Chromecast, but connects to a pair of speakers or a hi-fi via a 3.5mm line out, optical out or standard phono (RCA) jacks. “We’re trying to do for hi-fi what we’ve done with the TV – turn your hi-fi into a smart hi-fi,” said a Google spokesperson.
Both the new Chromecasts are powered by a microUSB cable and will be available in the next week costing $35.
(Anirban Ghoshal can be contacted at anirban.g@ians.in)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance
Prime Minister,Narendra Modi being shown the demos of cutting-edge Google technology including Project Iris & Google Earth at Google campus, in Silicon Valley, California. The CEO, Google, Sundar Pichai is also seen.
San Jose:(IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday chaired a roundtable on renewable energy with top energy CEOs and experts during which he emphasised India’s commitment to realize the vision of 175 GigaWatts of clean energy by 2022.
At the roundtable, which was also attended by US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Modi gave an overview of initiatives undertaken in India in the area of renewable energy, such as Kochi airport becoming a solar-powered airport and solar panels being installed over a canal in Gujarat as another example of the use of renewable energy.
He said that early next month, a district court in the tribal belt of Jharkhand will become entirely solar-powered. Modi also mentioned coal gasification as an important area of research. He expressed confidence of a renewable energy revolution over the next decade, said an official statement.
Modi said there is massive scope of investment in the clean energy sector, for example, through the Railways, where 100 percent FDI has been allowed. He said the government is working to address issues in regulation, and address the financial health of Discoms.
Besides, Moniz, the meeting was also attended by Prof. Steven Chu, former US Secretary of Energy.
Top energy CEOs and investors, including Ahmad Chatila, CEO SunEdison; Nikesh Arora, President and COO, Softbank; K.R. Sridhar, CEO, Bloom Energy; Jonathan Wolfson, CEO, Solazyme; John Doerr, Venture Capitalist; and Ira Ehrenpreis of DBL partners were present.
Prof Arun Majumdar, Prof Roger Noll, Dr. Anjani Kochar, and Prof. Sally Benson, all from Stanford University, participated.
Among the views expressed at the roundtable, was a clear assertion that India has the makings of becoming the “clean energy world capital”.
The participants said that clean and renewable energy will soon be an inexpensive energy option, with electricity storage becoming cheaper.
Participants were of the view that states and cities in India should be allowed to take the lead in clean energy initiatives. A related thought was that the current grid is not designed for carrying the 175 GigaWatts (GW) of renewable energy that India is targeting, and therefore a complimentary effort is required on the grid side.
Private investment was emphasized as vital for realizing the vision of 175 GW, with a parallel example being given of how Israel had solved its water shortage using private investment, said the official statement.
Experts were of the view that India has to address issues in four key areas – viz. technology integration; finance; regulatory frameworks; and the right talent pool. They also expressed concern at the financial status of power distribution companies (Discoms) in India.
The CEOs present gave a brief overview of the technologies and innovations being used in their companies. In addition to solar and wind energy, biomass was also suggested as a key provider of clean energy.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business
Kolkata:(IANS) Sundar Pichai, the new CEO of the core business of Google, was a shy but brilliant student who never showed off his knowledge unnecessarily, recalls his teacher at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
The Chennai-born Pichai, then known by his full name Pichai Sundararajan, cleared the IIT entrance test in 1989 and enrolled for a four-year undergraduate course in metallurgical and materials engineering.
“He passed out in 1993 with a B.Tech (honours) degree. Being the topper, he was awarded the Bidhan Chandra Roy Memorial silver medal,” Sanat Kumar Roy, professor in the institute’s metallurgical and materials engineering department, told IANS over phone.
Roy, who taught metallurgical thermodynamics to Pichai, said he showed a keen interest in electronics material and did his final year thesis on the subject.
He was shy, calm and quiet, and “very, very brilliant”.
“Such was his brilliance, that it was very much evident that he wanted to do something different. His interest in material sciences was visible from the second year itself. He alone opted for electronic material in his batch,” recalled Roy, himself an IIT alumnus.
Pichai, who came from an ordinary middle class family was “unquestionably intelligent”.
In August, 1993, Pichai left for US, where he joined Stanford University and completed an MS course in material sciences and engineering and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was adjudged a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar.
Last year, Pichai was invited as the chief guest in the annual fest of the institute. “But he could not come. And instead interacted with the students through a video conference,” said Roy.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Technology
By Fakir Balaji
Bengaluru/New Delhi:(IANS) The Indian IT industry is upbeat over the appointment of Indian-born Sundarajan Pichai, 43, as chief executive of the world’s largest search engine Google Inc in the US.
Elated over the meteoric rise of Pichai in Google, who will succeed its co-founder Larry Page a decade after joining the Silicon Valley behemoth in 2004, a top industry executive said on Tuesday that the IIT graduate symbolized new India, representing talent, technology, innovation and managerial acumen.
“It is not a surprise that another Indian techie has made it to the top a year after Satya Nadella became Microsoft’s chief executive. They both with many others represent the best of talent, creativity and managerial ability to run global corporations,” Nasscom president R. Chandrashekhar told IANS.
In a sudden announcement at Palo Alto where Google is headquartered, Page said that former Chrome and Android head Pichai would be the new executive as he was moving out to head a new umbrella company Alphabet.
Google’s other co-founder Sergey Brin will be the president of Alphabet, floated to run its other subsidiaries such as Life Sciences and Calico.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to greet Pichai for heading one of the most valued technology firms in the world.
“Congratulations Sundar Pichai. My best wishes for the new role at Google,” Modi tweeted.
Modi is likely to meet Pichai during his visit to the Silicon Valley in September to address the Indian Diaspora, especially hundreds of Indian-born techies and entrepreneurs working in global IT firms and start-ups in the Bay area.
“We are planning to have an inter-active session between Modi and our Diaspora in the Silicon Valley where he will meet Pichai, Nadella and other Indian-born and Indian American honchos to seek their expertise in fast tracking the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ programmes,” Chandrashekhar said.
Nadella also tweeted: “Congrats sundarpichai well deserved!”
Besides strengthening Indian and American tech partnership, elevation of Pichai and Nadella to top posts underscored the fact that India has become a storehouse of global talent in technology and management.
“Pichai, Nadella and scores of other Indians who went on to build IT products demonstrate the maturity of our IT industry, which has come of age to catch up with global peers and move up the value chain to innovation from software services and back office operations,” said Chandrashekhar.
Echoing the industry body’s view, former Infosys director and Manipal Global Education T.V. Mohandas Pai said Pichai’s rise to the top in Google was a testimony to the great global talent India had and the globalisation of Indian economy.
“With a more open economy, Indians are working at senior levels across global enterprises and are beginning to head global corporations, particularly in technology,” Pai told IANS here.
Representing the $150-billion Indian IT industry, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) plans to invite Pichai to India for building an ecosystem in the country to replicate its success in software services in products for serving domestic and global markets.
“It is a matter of pride to have many Indians like Pichai in top positions in the tech world, and it would be an honour to have their expertise in speeding up product development, innovation and creating new devices for global market,” Chandrashekhar added.
Lauding Pichai for becoming a chief executive of a global firm at a young age, former Infosys director and angel investor V. Balakrishnan said it was wonderful to see many Indians occupy the top posts in global corporations.
“Google is one of the most innovative organisations in the world, and Pichai is one of the most respected persons in the technology industry. His elevation to the chief executive post in Google validates once again the quality and depth of managerial talent India has,” Balakrishnan told IANS here.
