DiGiSPICE: Industry Monitoring 04 January 2019
- Priyanka Kanodia
- Jan 4, 2019
- 5 min read
DiGiSPICE
Here's How Digital Governance is Changing the World
Publication- Entrepreneur India
Edition- Online
A tiny post-Soviet nation is grabbing news headlines the world over. Not because of any border crisis, immigrant issues or a dwindling economy, but for achieving a level of perfection in governance that was till now considered utopian. The country is Estonia, and the project that has created the historical transformation of the country from a state to a digital society is known as e-Estonia.
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Industry News
From NEC to Fujitsu, Japanese IT firms scout for acquisitions in India
Publication- Business Standard
Edition- Online
Information technology (IT) entities from Japan, increasingly looking at global play like their European peers, are planning to leverage from an Indian delivery base. India has a long history of serving global clients in IT, especially those in North America. Sources in the know say NEC, NTT Data, Hitachi and Fujitsu are actively scouting for acquisitions that could give them a substantial delivery presence in this country.
Technologies. Last week, the company said it would acquire Danish IT services firm KMD Holding for $1.2 billion, testimony to its growing global ambition. Similarly, NTT Data's acquisition in 2016 of Dell Services for $3.1 billion enabled it to have a substantial presence in India. The company had also acquired a 55 per cent stake in Atom Technologies, a payments services firm owned by Mumbai-based 63 Moons Technologies, for $9 million in December last year.
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Apax places $200m bet on big data with Fractal stake buy
Publication- The Economic Times
Edition- Online
Private equity group Apax Partners is poised to become the single-largest shareholder in Fractal Analytics by picking up a significant minority stake of around 45% for $175-200 million, valuing India’s No. 2 big data firm at $350-400 million. Apax will be buying out existing shareholders Khazanah Nasional Berhad and TA Associates and will infuse fresh capital in the company to bulk up the balance sheet for future acquisitions and growth, said people aware of the development. Discussions are in the final stages and a formal signing is scheduled by early next week or even this weekend.
Apax Partners and TA Associates declined to comment. Khazanah didn’t respond to queries. Fractal Analytics was set up in 2000 by five graduates of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, with each pooling Rs 2 lakh. It raised $60,000 from angel investor Gulu Mirchandani of Mirc Electronics, who has chosen to remain invested. Of the original five, only two — Srikanth Velamakanni and Pranay Agrawal — remain. They, along with other employees, own about 38% of the company.
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Skilling India is a massive undertaking
Publication- Scroll
Edition- Online
India’s demographic dividend places it at an advantageous position with respect to economic growth, with 12.8 million people entering the workforce annually. But experts caution that this demographic advantage may well turn into a liability if skill development doesn’t grow proportionally.
There is a real risk that a major portion of the population will be rendered unemployable as the country progresses into a knowledge and digital economy. Partnering with these organisations to equip marginalised people with the skills to get a job or build a business is a target set by Accenture India’s CSR initiative - Skills to Succeed.
By leveraging its expertise in 40 industries, the CSR initiative aims to enhance the economic vitality and resilience of individuals, families and communities. Apart from helping the NGO partners scale their operations, the initiative also supports them with measuring outcomes, pro-bono consulting, cash donations, employee volunteering and fundraising efforts.
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Blockchain Software Facilitates Data Capabilities To Digital Media
Publication- Owlt Market
Edition- Online
Blockchain software might not fit in all the industries but there is an obvious appeal as it gets omnipresent in the international market. Indeed, it isn’t an instant hit and there are several projects that have not yet achieved the desired objectives from this future technology. After disrupting the industries like finance, energy, supply chain and health care it is now making its way into media. Blockchain can be used anywhere where there is a transactional operation is performed in a business involving assets and data.
To strengthen the niche of blockchain a new platform Blockgraph has been launched by Comcast Cable Advertising, a division of Comcast Corporation. The industry initiative facilitates participants to protect and manage their data which happens in a shared insight of the entire network. The new peer-to-peer system will help in creating a secured identity layer for the audience of television. Also, the media companies will be able to adopt this system which will help in the secure exchange of privacy-compliant audience for advertising.
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Amazon Announces a Blockchain Quantum Ledger and AWS Managed Blockchain
Publication- Krypto Money
Edition- Online
Amazon, the multinational retail company recently announced two services that will employ blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). Very positive news for the ecosystem as adoption by a giant like the Amazon will boost blockchain towards mainstream adoption.
The official announcement by the company states that the Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) will be their fully managed ledger database that provides a transaction log owned by a central trusted authority. QLDB will use SHA-256 cryptographic hash function
in order to ensure the log’s transparency, immutability, and high verifiability.
Amazon Quantum Ledger Database
Furthermore, QLDB will track every application data change and works to maintain a comprehensive and verifiable record of changes over time. Amazon also states that currently the service only provides an append-only, immutable journal that keeps track of all changes. The key featured of QLDB as recognized by Amazon are transparency, scalability, speed, and ease of use. In addition, the database can execute two to three times more transactions compared to current blockchain offerings.
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Four Trends That Blockchain Will Dominate In 2019
Publication- Express Computer
Edition- Online
Post the financial crisis in 2008, Bitcoins came into existence and gained a lot of prominence gradually. While the mainstream viability of crypto currency is still speculative, Blockchain has emerged to be one of the prime technologies and is expected to do big things – solve problems and open a plethora of opportunities across industries. As people realize its wide applications day by day, Blockchain continues to grow in popularity.
Looking at the year gone by, here are some key observations on how Blockchain fared and what it is expected to change for organisations:
#1 More traditional companies are looking into blockchain technology We see more and more companies using this cutting-edge technology or are in the process of implementing it given its myriad applications. Organizations are now building capabilities that are needed to push blockchain into mainstream adoption. Industries that are seeing an increased adoption of Blockchain are Banking, Financial services, insurance, supply chain management, healthcare, e-commerce, gaming and academics.
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Total 5,151 projects proposed by cities under Smart City mission: Centre
Publication- Money Control
Edition- Online
A total of 5,151 projects have been proposed by cities in their Smart City Proposals and they have all incorporated special purpose vehicles, the Rajya Sabha was informed Thursday. Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said this in a written reply to a question in the Upper House of Parliament.
"The implementation of the Smart Cities Mission is being done by a city level Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). "As on date, all 100 cities have incorporated SPVs, 97 of them have procured Project Management Consultants (PMCs) and all 100 have constituted City Level Advisory Fora (CLAF)," he said in the reply. A total of 5,151 projects at an estimated cost of Rs. 2,05,018 crore have been proposed by cities in their Smart City Proposals (SCPs), Puri said.
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