DiGiSPICE: Industry Monitoring 25 January 2019
- Priyanka Kanodia
- Jan 28, 2019
- 13 min read
DiGiSPICE
Industry News
Budget 2019 expectations: Fintech firms want incentives for those creating employment, faster procedural clearance
Publication- Zee Business
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
By Dilip Modi
Budget 2019: The Narendra Modi government has been striving for financial inclusion for all. The year 2018 also witnessed many announcements aimed at driving financial inclusion. The finance ministry had promised to double the allocation to Digital India to Rs 3,073 crore for the fiscal year 2018-19. Fintech firms said that while populist mechanisms such as relief in taxes and loans are being predicted, they expect reforms related to the sector.
Dilip Modi, Founder and Chairman, DiGiSPICE said, "While populist mechanisms such as relief in taxes and loans are being predicted, we expect the government to also address a few of the concerns of the technology sector and present some opportunities. As the role of AI, machine learning, analytics, automation and IoT becomes more prominent, the government would need to allocate resources that help strengthen digital infrastructure.
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Paytm has no plans to leave Mall business: Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Publication- The Economic Times
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has denied that the company is planning to exit the online marketplace business but said its newly-launched online wholesale business is expected to generate about 15% of the Paytm Mall’s business in the coming years. Three people close to the Noidabased mobile payments and ecommerce firm, however, said Paytm is looking to exit, or at least scale down, its marketplace business due to intense competition from larger rivals of Flipkart and Amazon. Instead, the company would focus on business-to-business (B2B), two of them said.
“They have figured out that they are not acquiring loyal customers in the B2C space,” one of the persons told ET. “Now they will completely focus on the B2B space.” Another person said a host of Paytm Mall employees have been given the option of shifting to other verticals within the payment services company. Paytm was reportedly valued at about $10 billion when 3-4% stake in parent firm One97 Communications was sold for about $300 million in August.
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Thomas Cook partners with Netcore's Smartech to boost push notification delivery by 44%, CTR by 63%, and campaign revenues by 2.5X
Publication- ET Brand Equity
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Thomas Cook, India’s leading integrated travel and travel related financial services company, used Smartech Push Amplification to solve the issue of low delivery rates, regularly plaguing app push notifications. The results were extremely encouraging – a 44% increase in push notification delivery rates. As a result, the campaign’s Click-Through rateswent up by 63%. The brand also succeeded in increasing its campaign revenues by 2.5 times with the help of Smartech, the AI-powered marketing automation & analytics suite by NetcoreSolutions, a global marketing technology provider. Thomas Cook is blazing the trail for the data-driven marketer by relying on futuristic marketing technologies for successful digital marketing.
Smartech's actionable analytics, advanced segmentation, and multi-channel marketing automation helped us increase our campaign revenues by 2.5X. The ML-powered automated and personalised engagement strategies helped us boost lead generation by 2X on Smartech, reducing customer acquisition costs by 50%. Smartech Push Amplification solved our biggest problem: low rates of push Notification delivery. Our Push Notification delivery rate went up by 44% and CTR by 63%,” said Abraham Alapatt, Group President, Head - Marketing, Service Quality & Innovation, Thomas Cook (I).
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Poland set to exclude China's Huawei from 5G plans
Publication- ET Telecom
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Poland is set to exclude Huawei from its future 5G network in favour of European players following the arrest of an employee from the Chinese telecoms company on suspicion of spying, officials and industry sources say.
Polish government officials are talking to European Union and North American allies on the next steps but haven't determined which telecoms equipment maker might replace Huawei, the sources said.
Finland's Nokia and Swedish telecoms company Ericsson are the leading two European competitors who could provide 5G telecoms equipment for Poland, the largest economy in eastern Europe.
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After Successful Launch In Japan And Canada, Paytm May Launch In Two More Developed Countries
Publication- Swarajya Magazine
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Paytm Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Madhur Deora has stated that his company was exploring options to enter one or two developed markets in 2019, reportsReuters. “We have found the developed markets to be very interesting,” Deora said while speaking at the World Economic Forum annual summit 2019 at Davos. Deora stated that Paytm, which is India’s largest payment gateway, received a favourable response in markets like Canada and Japan in which it recently began operations. He also added that several commerce and financial services verticals of the company were generating revenues and profits.
In 2018, renowned investor and one of the wealthiest men in the world, Warren Buffett, invested $300 million (around Rs 2,200 crore) in One97 Communications, Paytm’s parent company. With this investment, the valuation of PayTm stands at $10-12 billion, making it the most valued startup in India.
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Ericsson posts lower than expected loss as savings and 5G demand kick in
Publication- Money Control
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Mobile telecoms equipment company Ericsson beat fourth-quarter forecasts on Friday and said it was approaching its financial targets thanks to growing demand for next-generation 5G gear. The Swedish company has staked its recovery on rising demand for 5G equipment and could be well placed to benefit from current turmoil surrounding market leader Huawei.
Excluding restructuring charges and other costs related to its Business Support System (BSS) operation, Ericsson's operating margin rose to 8.7 percent from 7 percent, marking the fourth consecutive quarter with steady improvements in profitability, with help from recent cost savings.
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More responsible use of workforce data needed: Accenture report
Publication- The Economic Times
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Business leaders will need to implement responsible workforce data strategies if they are to build the employee trust that will help generate sustained revenue growth, according to a new report from Accenture. While more than five in 10 C-level executives (51%) from India said that their organizations are using new technologies to collect data on their people and their work to gain more actionable insights — from the quality of work and the way people collaborate to their safety and well-being — fewer than one-third (31 percent) are very confident that they are using the data responsibly.
The Accenture Strategy report, “Decoding Organizational DNA,” is based on qualitative and quantitative research, including global surveys of 1,400 C-level executives and 10,000 workers across 13 industries including 100 C-level executives and 750 workers from India.
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Indo-Russian collaboration in AI, IoT to take-off in 2019: Zyfra CEO
Publication- Business Standard
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Indo-Russia joint projects in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are expected to take-off this year according to the Finnish-Russian digital solutions provider Zyfra which has joined hands with Indian companies to provide IoT and AI-based solutions for the industrial sector.
In an e-mail interview with IANS, Igor Bogachev, the Chief Executive of Zyfra, which has supplied Indian manufacturers with AI and IoT-based solutions, as well as autonomous vehicles, said the Indian sectors with most potential to adopt such solutions are metallurgy, transportation, aerospace and petrochemicals.
"India is of great interest to companies in the field of the industrial Internet of Things and this year we hope to see first projects in this area being implemented jointly with Russia," Bogachev said.
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Harvard, Levi Strauss, US think tank in blockchain tie-up on worker welfare
Publication- Deccan Chronicle
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Harvard University’s public health graduate school, US think-tank New America, and American apparel company Levi Strauss & Co announced on Thursday a collaboration to develop a blockhain-based system designed to augment outside auditors of factory health and safety with self-reporting by workers.
Three factories in Mexico producing goods for Levi Strauss and employing 5,000 workers will be the first to use the blockchain-powered survey in 2019. Blockchain, which first emerged as the system powering bitcoin, is a shared database maintained by a network of computers connected to the internet. New York-based Consensys will provide the project’s blockchain solution.
Essentially, the plan is to put an annual worker survey on the blockchain in what the participants called a crucial first step in transparent evaluation of working conditions in factories. The project is funded through a grant from the US State Department.
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Mumbai: Big data, impact of climate change on India discussed at SP Jain conference
Publication- Indian Express
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Big data, data science, climate change and its impact on India were issues in focus at the 12th Annual Indian Subcontinent Decision Sciences Institute (ISDSI) conference held at the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai. The ISDSI is a key part of the US-based Decision Sciences Institute (DSI).
The central theme of the conference was ‘Data-driven decision making in the digital age’. As many as 400 academicians, researchers, industry leaders and practitioners from management schools of eight countries, including India, took part in the programme. Over 325 research papers were presented in 20 parallel tracks.
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Blockchain Technology Based Projects Enhance Amazon Web Services With Apt Tools
Publication- Owlt Market
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Amazon Web Services is going to bring in a major shift with the addition of a private blockchain technology in their systems. This private integration has been developed by JP Morgan alums that struck out from the multi-national to create something of their own which is called Kadena. The most unique feature of Kadena’s blockchain service is that it has immense capabilities in terms of scalability and security which can handle about 8,000 transactions per second across 500 nodes while a simple Ethereum blockchain can make around 15 transactions per second.
The blockchain service is free for use in the Amazon Web Services marketplace which is also dubbed as ‘Kadena Blockchain for Enterprise, ScalableBFT: Community Edition’. As of now, it can perform 2,000 transactions per second with the availability of four nodes per user. However, there is a paid version also which will increase the transactions up to 8,000 per second.
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How Blockchain Technology Will Revolutionise Legal Services
Publication- Owlt Market
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Blockchain technology tends to revolutionize online legal services and the young entrepreneurs and legal experts or lawyers will benefit from this new concept. But there are various reasons which stop the legal industry to digitize and globalize their legal services. Law firms spend a huge amount on infrastructures like paying office rent and staff salaries and their customers have to pay high costs in a result. An involvement of intermediaries or middlemen in the services leads to a long time wait and charging more money as well. The firms follow bureaucratic structures and find difficult to adopt new technologies. Most start-up founders face difficulties to find those lawyers who are capable to work with the new technologies and solve tricky situations. TechCrunch conducted a survey in order to help the founders in the same.
Legal Nodes is one of the platforms who provide new online legal services to individuals. The main objective of this platform is to develop a law firm called “Decentralized Law Firm” in order to provide online legal services with lower costs and more access to justice. It follows a trend called “legal blockchain” and this new trend is all about the creation of legal innovations in order to provide easy access to relevant legal expertise.
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Universities Programs Help Students To Have Career In Blockchain Technology
Publication- Owlt Market
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Ripple will work with the Institute for Fintech Research (THUIFR) at Tsinghua University for a Blockchain technology research scholarship program. This program will primarily focus on global regulatory policies and blockchain development as well. The main objective of this program is to provide students with a complete view of blockchain technology in order to make them do future research and ultimately to have a career in this technology.
Ripple’s Senior Vice President (SVP) of global operations Eric van Miltenburg said, “The program’s goal – to provide students with opportunities in blockchain research – closely aligns with that of Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative; we’re thrilled to support THUIFR in this endeavor and look forward to its launch.”
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Blockchain Education Program Liberates Developers To Connect With Potential Customers
Publication- Owlt Market
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Blockchain education has been taken up seriously by the institutes and organizations to bridge the gap of know-how and resources in this stream. There are several big universities that have already taken up blockchain in their mainstream education. However, there still is a big lacuna in the acceptance and genuine understanding about the future of this emerging technology. Therefore, to promote its credibility an application has been created for blockchain enthusiasts, that is completely free to be used.
This is the world’s first app store solely for blockchain dubbed as Modex. It has invited blockchain researchers and developers to test the free tool available on the app and also they can write smart contracts. The most interesting part of the one who does this gets paid by the app makers. This application can be used for day-to-day tasks by making the connection between developers and potential customers. Also, it is capable of facilitating quick and easy access to the implementation of smart contracts. This application serves a dual purpose of both educating the pupil as well as extend advancements towards the enterprise sector, as mentioned on Business Review.
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Indo-Russia Collaboration In AI, IoT Can Transform The Subcontinent Into A Superpower
Publication- Analytics India
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Russia has been one of India’s closest allies when it comes to advancements in the AI and Internet of Things. Now, this relationship has got a boost, as Indo-Russia joint projects in these fields are expected to undergo an explosion this year. According to a statement from Zyfra, a Finnish-Russian digital solutions provider, Indo-Russian collaboration for this year is looking in a positive direction.
Zyfra has also partnered with multiple Indian companies in order to provide IoT and AI-based solutions for the industrial sector. The company has reached over $3 million in contracts with Indian companies in 2018, and are aiming at a target of over $50 million in deals with Indian companies by 2021.
Igor Bogachev, the Chief Executive Officer at Zyfra recently corresponded with a national newswire, offering his take on the state of their Indian partnerships. He also mentioned that the sectors most likely to adopt solutions that implement AI, IoT and autonomous vehicles are metallurgy, aerospace, petrochemicals and transportation.
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The Future with Internet of Things (IOT)
Publication- The Asian Age
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
In recent years, we have seen a wave of automation sweeping across major industry verticals. Automation is no longer limited just to offices but Homes as well, thanks to the emergence of IoT and the concept of smart homes. Quoted as the next big technological revolution, the Internet of Things (IoT) is bound to bring about a major shift in the way we work, live and entertain ourselves. By the time we step into 2020, we will be awestruck by the fact that a whopping 60 billion IoT connected devices will vouch for its popularity. Labelled as a novel technology that has the potential to transform every sphere of human life, here are all the ways IoT has become the talk of the town.
IoT can present ample opportunities for businesses. Allowing them to tread the path of workflow automation and optimisation, IoT can offer a plethora of possibilities to minimise human efforts. With IoT, human intervention concerning both technical and manual operations can be cut down by a large extent.
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Ockam SDK taps blockchain-based identity services for IoT
Publication- Computer World
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Ockam has released an open source SDK, based on Google’s Go language, to allow developers to build identify services into their Internet of Things applications. The identity services will be provided by the Ockam Network, the company’s “decentralized” cloud service platform.
Ockam Blockchain Network
When the SDK is added to firmware in connected devices, the devices become clients of the Ockam Blockchain Network, providing identity and trust for IoT and deployed on the Microsoft Azure cloud. Devices receive a unique Decentralized Identifier based on the World Wide Web Consortium specification and can share data with other devices on the Ockam network. The identifier is intended to solve a pain point in IoT in which it can be difficult to know which device has what data; the identifier gives the device a publicly available identity. With Ockam, IoT devices can verify data received from other devices registered on this network.
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Nexstgo launches 'AVITA' laptops; plans big on IoT, smart mirror for Indian buyers
Publication- Devdis Course
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Hong Kong-based NexstgoThursday unveiled its new brandof 'AVITA' laptops and said it aims to clock monthly sales of 10,000 units in the coming financial year. Nexstgo -- which ventured into the country last year -- is keen on tapping the niche Internet of Things (IoT) segment here and is also lining up products like 'smart' weighing scale and 'smart' mirror that displays health information like BMI, for Indian buyers.
"Apart from good specifications, our devices are available in bright colours and designs that separates us from the competition. The focus over the next few months will be to establish the brand," NexstgoCompany Ltd CEO and co-founder Alex Chung told reporters here. He added that the company will invest USD 2.5-3 million in various marketing activities, including digital campaigns and in-shop branding for the new brand.
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US health insurers partner IBM for medical blockchain
Publication- Tech Circle
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
US-based health insurers Aetna, Anthem, Health Care Service Corporation and PNC have signed on IBM for a blockchain project to improve transparency and interoperability in the healthcare industry. The aim is to create an inclusive blockchain network that can benefit multiple members of the healthcare ecosystem in a highly secure, shared environment, IBM said in a statement. The firm added that the goal is to allow the blockchain network to enable healthcare companies to build, share and deploy solutions that drive digital transformation in the industry.
"Blockchain's unique attributes make it suitable for large networks of members to 1/25/2019 US health insurers partner IBM for medical blockchain | Techcircle https://techcircle.vccircle.com/2019/01/25/us-health-insurers-partner-ibm-for-medical-blockchain/ 2/2 (/) quickly exchange sensitive data in a permissioned, controlled, and transparent way," said Lori Steele, general manager for healthcare and life sciences at IBM. IBM said that it will not only help in digitising healthcare data but also minimise human errors. The project, once functional, could lead to enhanced patient care and reduced costs for the healthcare industry in general, said IBM.
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Ockam SDK taps blockchain-based identity services for IoT
Publication- Computer World
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Ockam has released an open source SDK, based on Google’s Go language, to allow developers to build identify services into their Internet of Things applications. The identity services will be provided by the Ockam Network, the company’s “decentralized” cloud service platform.
Ockam Blockchain Network
When the SDK is added to firmware in connected devices, the devices become clients of the Ockam Blockchain Network, providing identity and trust for IoT and deployed on the Microsoft Azure cloud. Devices receive a unique Decentralized Identifier based on the World Wide Web Consortium specification and can share data with other devices on the Ockam network. The identifier is intended to solve a pain point in IoT in which it can be difficult to know which device has what data; the identifier gives the device a publicly available identity. With Ockam, IoT devices can verify data received from other devices registered on this network.
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Nasdaq, Citi Group And Novogratz Backs Blockchain Firm Symbiont
Publication- Krypto Money
Edition- Online
Date- 25 January, 2019
Symbiont.io Inc. a New York-based company that employs blockchain technology into capital markets solution gets a $20 million funding from a host of wall street biggies including Nasdaq Inc., Citigroup Inc., and Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.
Some naysayers are questioning the adaptability of blockchain technology as its most common use case, cryptocurrencies are facing a bear market. Such an investment from institutional investors supports that the technology is garnering much interest despite a growing pragmatism about its limitations and potential applications
An official statement from the company elaborated that Nasdaq Ventures is the lead investor in Symbiont’s series B funding round. Other investors include Citigroup, Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. and Raptor Group Holdings, an investment company backed by Jim Pallotta’s family office.
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