Technology + R&D News from Bangalore

[strike2]

World's third-biggest data centre in Bangalore

It's a fortress. The whisper in the company is that the security personnel are paid more than most employees. They certainly look like they are well looked after . Some are even armed. If you are a visitor , you will only be allowed to enter the gate if you are expected.

You have to be escorted by a security official till the point where a company executive takes over. X-ray scanners scan you as you enter. There are access-controlled turnstiles. Elevator cards take you only to the floor you are supposed to go.

It's Lt Col Hardeep Singh Bedi's newest and perhaps his boldest venture—an absolutely world-class data centre. It's in Bangalore and it's the third-biggest in the world, with a floor space of 9 lakh sq ft. That's roughly equal to 10 international match sized football fields.

The biggest in the world is the Lakeside Technology Centre in Chicago (1.1 million sq ft, or 11 million sq ft) and the next biggest is the QTS Metro Data Centre in Atlanta (9.7 lakh sq ft).

A data centre holds the servers, storage and networking gear that companies use to store, process and transmit the enormous amounts of data that they deal with today. Many companies have their own internal data centres but, increasingly , they are handing over the data centre responsibilities to third parties. And that's where Bedi's Tulip Telecom saw an opportunity.

Since the data is priceless to companies, Bedi could not afford to make any compromises on security, which explains the amount he has spent on securing the facility . "Even if there is a bomb blast immediately outside our building, the data centre facilities will not be affected because there's a second wall that separates the main building wall from the data centre," Bedi, who turns 60 this year, says.

Security has been integral to Bedi right through his life. Early on, he decided to follow his family's three-generation old tradition of serving the Indian Army. He graduated from the National Defence Academy to join the Army in 1972. He was initially in the armoured corps.

"But the Army lets you do other things, so I did some computer courses in the early 1980s in the Army's Faculty of Computer Technology in Mhow. I was then posted as an instructor in the faculty for four years, after which I was posted to Delhi to plan the automation of the Army." He was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for his role in the computerization of the Indian Army.

In 1994, he took premature retirement from the Army and started a company called Tulip Software. "I had no idea about business. I started by selling software products. Then we got into hardware, then networking."

An inflection point came in 2004, when Bedi won a project to connect the complete district of Malappuram in Kerala. With that success, he tried to see if he could provide data connectivity to corporates and customers in general. That too succeeded. Today, he has 2,000 cities covered on wireless and 300 cities on fibre (wires).

"I quickly became the biggest player in wireless, and today, even on fibre, I'm bigger than Tata, Bharti and Reliance," says Hardeep Singh Bedi.

Many of the telecom service providers lease lines from Tulip, which had revenues of Rs 2,600 crore in the last fiscal year.

The Bangalore data centre, which was launched in February and on which he has already spent Rs 415 crore, is Bedi's latest bet. A data centre cannot have the slightest bit of downtime. So everything in the data centre, including the power sources, is duplicated or triplicated .

He used IBM as a consultant for the project. A data centre is measured by its power efficiency, and Bedi says his centre is at least 30% more efficient than the global average.

"I chose Bangalore because it is in seismic zone 1 (least prone to earthquakes). It is well connected, midway between Mumbai and Chennai, which are the landing stations for international fibre. And it has a lot of IT and hardware skills, so I can get support quickly if something were to go wrong," says Bedi.
HP, IBM and NTT are already customers for the data centre.

Rajesh Janey, president of storage major EMC India, says Tulip has evolved very well as a company. "They started as a systems integrator, went on to become the largest provider of virtual private networks in India. The Bangalore data centre is now truly trend setting ," he says.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/t...w/14341914.cms

[naveen_blr]

Originally Posted by sunilkumar

Bangalore already home to 95% of Global semicon companies design centers.

High time CG should promote semicon chip fabrication business which india lags behind. Infact nil when compared to china/korea.

Much hyped fab city failed because of lack of ecosystem.

Was so disappointing when we lost it to Hyderabad but looks like it was a wrong decision by whoever thought to set it up there it would have been jam packed if it were in Blr :-)

[sunilkumar]

Originally Posted by naveen_blr

Was so disappointing when we lost it to Hyderabad but looks like it was a wrong decision by whoever thought to set it up there it would have been jam packed if it were in Blr :-)

Nothing wrong in competition ..Fab city was a fake company .They were trying to grab 4000 acres land around BLR .HDK govt did good job by not allocating any peice of land.

Also,
I don't think it would be hit even Bangalore.
Unlike software industry which require only semi/skilled labours ,Chip industry need specialised skilled labours, Raw materials, high end machines, good cargo handling sea/air ports & good number indian based hardware(electronic) companies which utilize these chips.
unfortunatly we don't have many electronic companies which can make use of these chips.
Although chennai ,to some extent Bangalore , NCR have assembly plants .Raw materials chips imported from china/korea.

To create chip business ecosystem , Industry based skill devlopment programs & Mainly India should produce desi electronic companies. for that indians should use desi products.

sadly we indians are addicted to foreign products.

[gentem]

forget bangalore, even US cant give competion to china taiwan manufacturing. initially they tried manufacturing iphone in US but due to some constraint they had to make it made in china. That industry needs lot of supply industries like for a phone, glass, plastic cover, metal cover, pcb and it is constantly evolving. So bangalore or hyderabad there is not much scope.

But electrical bulk items are simpler and can be manufactured in india, they should increase customs on tv/fridge/washing machines But small items like laptops, mobiles, tablets not much scope.

[naveen_blr]

Originally Posted by gentem

forget bangalore, even US cant give competion to china taiwan manufacturing. initially they tried manufacturing iphone in US but due to some constraint they had to make it made in china. That industry needs lot of supply industries like for a phone, glass, plastic cover, metal cover, pcb and it is constantly evolving. So bangalore or hyderabad there is not much scope.

But electrical bulk items are simpler and can be manufactured in india, they should increase customs on tv/fridge/washing machines But small items like laptops, mobiles, tablets not much scope.

Doesn't dell & Nokia manufacture them @Chennai or is it just an assembly plant.

[srivatsayb]

Bangalore being one of the least seismic prone is a huge consideration for many companies setting shop and even more for ppl with data servers...

yelladarallu bengaluru benki jaaga :p

[engineer.akash]

Intersil gets new design centre in Bangalore

Currently, the headcount of the company is 40 employees. Globally, the company has about 1,600 employees and it reported a revenue of Rs..4,155.74 crore in 2011

BANGALORE, INDIA: Analogue and mixed signal semiconductors manufacturer, Intersil Corporation has established a new design centre in Bangalore. This centre will focus on analogue and mixed-signal and power-management ICs and besides providing system-level application support for customers, it will also develop new integrated circuits and reference designs.

Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts to infuse Rs. 500 crore at its third plant in Bangalore

Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts, the auto part manufacturing subsidiary of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited has confirmed the infusion of Rs. 500 crore in the establishment of its third auto components manufacturing facility at Bidadi in Bangalore.

[dino_srk]

The proposal to permit FDI in multi-brand retail may have come a cropper but as technology becomes the next big battleground for retailers, India may well be where these battles are fought.

Tesco, the world's third-largest retailer, is building a crack team in Bangalore as shopping goes online and supply-chain efficiencies become more critical in keeping prices affordable.

From scheduling transportation in Thailand to floor planning for its stores in UK, there's a bit of Bangalore in everything Tesco does, and its Chief Information Officer (CIO), Mike McNamara, only sees that growing in the days to come. "Digital and technology will be big battlegrounds within each of the markets," McNamara told ET in an exclusive interview, and he sees the Bangalore office playing a central role in giving it that competitive edge.

The centre started in 2004 and Tesco was one of the first retailers to set up a captive unit here. The world's largest retailer, Walmart, also followed setting up Walmart Labs in Bangalore but only a few years ago. Both of them, as well as other global retailers, use Indian service providers for parts of their IT and analytics.

McNamara himself is averse to calling Tesco's centre a captive because he finds it subservient. "We've watched it blossom from a fairly solid operations centre into something that's doing this very sophisticated work," he says.

The centre employs over 6,000 people, who work on functions as varied as online advertising, mobile applications, store design and transport scheduling, in addition to IT and back-office functions.

A team of mathematicians in Bangalore and UK work on algorithms for sophisticated supply chain systems that take into account everything from weather patterns to sporting events and seasonal variations. "If we don't get the mathematics exactly right for the fresh foods, it goes waste. Getting it right is a tricky business - it's a huge leverage on profitability," says McNamara.

In US, where its business is struggling, the Bangalore office helped to launch a loyalty scheme, which is entirely digital. Most of the IT for US is done entirely from Bangalore. "The US team is very small," says McNamara. Overall, 70% of the IT across the Tesco Group is from India and that's likely to increase rather than decrease, he says.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...41.cms?curpg=2

[engineer.akash]

Carl Zeiss opens production facility

Carl Zeiss India on Wednesday inaugurated a new campus and production facility in Electronic City, Bangalore.

The company , a global leader in the optical and opto electronic industry, is active in the fields of semi-conductor manufacturing technology, industrial metrology, microscopy, medical technology, vision care and consumer optics/optronics.

[dino_srk]

The 4.2-billion euro German manufacturing company Carl Zeiss has established a research and development unit and two manufacturing facilities in Electronics City in Bangalore.

Carl Zeiss has been present in India since1998,butlargely as a sales and service business. The company manufactures an array of products ranging from prescription spectacle lenses to diagnostic and surgical equipments that are used in the fields of ophthalmology, neuro-surgery and cancer treatment, and in camera lenses. It also manufactures precision measurement tools that are used in the auto, aerospace, and power sectors, besides manufacturing equipments required for the manufacture of integrated chips.

Speaking exclusively to TOI before inaugurating the company’s Bangalore campus, Michael Kaschke, president and CEO of Carl Zeiss AG, said, “The investment into developing the infrastructure at our campus is Rs 30 crore.” He added that the company’s total investment in India, which includes acquisition of assets, is 25 million euro over the past 8 years. The R&D, which has the abbreviated name CARIn (Center for Applications and Research in India), will focus on the medical technology sector andlooktodevelop medical equipments tailored to the Indian market requirements.

“In ophthalmology,thereis an 80% chance that a doctor in India would be using Zeiss equipment,” said Kaschke. The company won’t be manufacturing medical equipments in India,butthe medicalequipment portfolio contributes a high percentage to its India revenueof Rs 600crore.

“I foresee that in India, by 2015-16, we will have 1,000 employees (from 300 at present) and our revenues would cross Rs 1,000 crore,” said Kaschke, and added, “India is evolving into a strategic business segmentof theZeissGroup.”

On the manufacturing front, the company has established an assembly line that would assemble precision measurement tools. But the biggest space allocation at the company’s Electronics City campus would be for the setting up of a prescription spectacle lens manufacturing facility.The manufacturing facility will have an installed capacity to produce 2,000 lenses a day, which could be scaled up to produce12,000lenses per day.

V Srinivasan, MD, Carl Zeiss India, said, “Some 500 million people needeye glasses in India. But the addressable market, meaning, people who can afford to buy them is only 125 million.”

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Defau...ue&Skin=TOINEW

[strike2]

Numeca opens branch office in Bangalore

Bangalore, July 13:

Belgium-based Numeca International, a software and service provider in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), has opened a branch office in Bangalore.

Opening of this branch office in India follows the opening of Numeca branch offices in Japan, the US and China.

This worldwide expansion is part of Numeca’s global strategy to bring its customer service to local markets and provide its software solutions to companies globally.

Development centre

The company is planning to set up a development centre in the near future, according to Numeca officials.

Professor Charles Hirsch, President and founder of Numeca, said: “An office in India will allow us to work more closely with local customers and will significantly reinforce the company’s position in this strategic market.”

Numeca's customers

Some of Numeca’s customers are in aerospace & defence, automotive, hydro-engineering, marine, power & propulsion and wind energy industries.

The customers include GE, Honeywell, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Airbus, ABB, Siemens, Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, MAN, and Emirates Team.

Numeca International has direct offices and support centres in the US, China, Japan and India and partner offices in Russia, Italy, Spain, Poland, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Turkey, Germany, France and Taiwan.

Product strategy

The company’s product strategy is based on the development of automated, integrated and customised software systems allowing optimal and rapid simulation, design and optimisation and its India development centre is in line with that.

“Until recently, we have been working with Indian customers through our partners. Now, there will be a closer synergy between the customer and us. Numeca brings affordable technologies to help students and researchers to meet the growing needs of universities and research institutions’ engineering demands with OpenLabs. OpenLabs allows students to put their own physical models into CFD solutions without much programming skills. Numeca is strongly working with Indian universities, research institutions to bridge the gap between academia and industries with our attractive and cost-effective Numeca class-room packages,” said Mr Kishore Nellutla, India’s sales & operations head, Numeca.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...cle3635353.ece

[engineer.akash]

Sogefi SpA : Sogefi (CIR Group): launches two plants in India

New suspension components plant opened in Pune and filter system factory in Bangalore doubled in size

The objective is to reach at least 5% of the group's total revenues in India in the next five years up from 1.2% in 2011. The initiative is part of Sogefi's strategy of growth in emerging markets
Pune (India), Milan, July 4 2012 - Sogefi, the automotive components company of the Cir group, is consolidating its presence in India with the launch of a new suspension components plant in the Pune area and with the doubling in size of the factory producing filter systems in the Bangalore area.

[engineer.akash]

Karnataka to set up hardware park

The government of Karnataka is setting up a new hardware park in an area of about 300 acres, near Bangalore International Airport (BIA) at an estimated cost of Rs 650-750 crores. Taiwanese companies will be invited to set up their units and collaborate with their Indian counterparts.

Karnataka, principle secretary, department of commerce and industry, MN Vidyashankar, said, “We have invited TCA (Taipei computer associates) and Taitronic (Taiwan electronics). Most of the Taiwanese companies are small scale, but 90 per cent of the laptops come from Taiwan”.

He added that there is a lot of interests shown by Taiwanese companies. The park would be part of the Karnataka government’s efforts to promote hardware development to complement the large number of companies involved in software development. Vidyashankar, said that more than 50 companies had already expressed their interest to be part of the park.

“We are spending about Rs 650-750 crores for land and development and would be able to make the money by selling it to interested companies. The revenue from the companies planning to set up here could well be over 10 times of our investment”, he said.

The work for the park will start from September and Ascendas will develop it. “Only 55% of the total land can have concrete structures as per the by laws and over 50 units of Consortium of Electronic Industries of Karnataka (CLIK) have taken over 50 acres and planning to scale vertically”. He said about 250 companies could be hosted.

The government of Karnataka also announced to host a new start up booster program in its upcoming 15th annual flagship event of Bangalore IT.biz, called ImpressIT programme. The new program will incubate at least 10 startups by facilitating funding from venture capital. The start up booster program will reach out to 194 engineering colleges across Karnataka.

SAP Lab, managing director, VR Ferose, said, “We will make the process of submitting the proof of concept very easy. Students across the state can submit their ideas online. And industry leaders will evaluate their ideas. Finally, 10 short-listed ideas will be given opportunity to be present in the event, Bangalore IT.biz. We will also invite venture capitals and investors, and students will be able to pitch their ideas before them for funding”.

mydigitalfc

[dino_srk]

Xerox Corporation has renamed its business process-outsourcing arm ACS (Affiliated Computer Services), which has a significant presence in India, to Xerox Services to bring it directly under the Xerox brand.

The $23-billion, Connecticut-based Xerox has already carried out the name change in the US. It is currently in the process of carrying out the same exercise in other geographies across the globe. Three years after acquiring ACS for $6.5 billion, Xerox is now integrating the services business. In its global marketing and branding communication, ACS is already being referred to as Xerox Services.

Xerox is yet to unleash the value of its ACS acquisition as a major chunk of its internal practices like finance & accounting, payroll, HR and other back office practices are still done internally in high-cost locations or given out to third parties including IBM, Wipro, HCL etc. Xerox is now trying to move a lot of these processes to its own company Xerox Services, to reduce the quantum of its outsourcing and therefore to cut cost. However, sources say it will be a phased exercise.

"ACS’s name change is a very strategic move by Xerox to take advantage of the combined strengths of its traditional product and technology business into the full service spectrum of ACS synergistically,’’ said a source.

It was in 2009 that Xerox entered into the BPO space by acquiring the Dallasbased ACS. It’s still the biggest deal in Xerox’s 110-year history. ACS currently has 75,000 people globally of which around 10,000 are in India.

"The company is strategically making headway in combining its strengths in its traditional print business with the acquired services business to penetrate the Indian market. A 260,000 sqft office facility is currently being readied in Bangalore. This large facility will be functional by mid 2013 and this investment is evidence of Xerox’s additional focus on BPO space from India,’’ said a source in a global realty firm.

Xerox, best known for its office copiers and printers, had cut its full-year profit target while reporting its secondquarter results a fortnight ago. The company had also spoken about costcutting and operational improvement. It has increased focus on transforming itself into a business services provider.

The company had total revenues of $5.5 billion during the quarter, which was 1% down in constant currency. “With more than half of our total revenue coming from services, accelerating growth in this segment of our business is a priority. Our second quarter results reflect solid progress with 8% growth from BPO, 9% growth from IT outsourcing and 6% growth in document outsourcing in constant currency,’’ said Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox Corporation.

Source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Defau...&ViewMode=HTML

[engineer.akash]

Mahindra Reva opens new EV plant in Bangalore

Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, a subsidiary of Mahindra Group, has inaugurated a new automobile factory in Bangalore, India.

The new assembly plant has an annual capacity of 30,000 cars and is expected to start production in September 2012.
Mahindra has bought a majority stake in Reva Electric Car Company in May 2010 and renamed it as Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles. The new plant will build electric vehicles, with Mahindra using the opportunity to unveil its vision related to the future of mobility, expressed using 5 C’s – Clean, Convenient, Connected, Clever and Cost Effective.
According to Mahindra & Mahindra president, Pawan Goenka, EVs are being considered as a viable alternative to conventional automobiles. This is why the Indian carmaker wants to take a lead in developing electric vehicles.
“The new manufacturing plant is, in a way the first tangible proof point of the Future of Mobility – this is the first purpose-built, ground-up EV plant in India, the first manufacturing plant to get IGBC platinum rating, the first plant where cars get their first fill using solar power. In fact, this plant will consume the least amount of energy per car build, with 1/3rd of this energy coming from solar power,” Goenka said at the inauguration.

http://www.inautonews.com/mahindra-r...e#.UDfk3MFlS9E

[engineer.akash]

Toyota to invest Rs. 900 cr to increase production in India

Press Trust of India | Updated On: September 06, 2012 11:08 (IST)

New Delhi:
Japanese car maker Toyota will be investing Rs. 900 crore in India to increase production capacity at its Bangalore facility by March next year, a top company official said today.

The company, which is present in India through a joint venture with the Kirloskar Group, will be increasing the capacity of its plant in Bangalore to 3.1 lakh units per annum by March next year from 2.1 lakh units at present.

"We will invest Rs. 900 crore to expand the capacity of our Bangalore plant by March next year. The production capacity will increase to 3.1 lakh annually from the 2.1 lakh units at present," Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) vice-chairman Vikram Kirloskar said on the sidelines of the annual convention of SIAM or the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

He added that most of these investments and the increase in production would be for hiking the capacity of Innova and Etios.

On the company's plans to set up a diesel engine manufacturing plant, TKM managing director Hiroshi Nakagawa said: "It is under discussion and we have not taken any decision yet. It will take time".

Last month, the company had said it was unable to convince its Japanese parent to invest on a diesel engine manufacturing plant in India due of the lack of clarity in pricing policy of the fuel in the country.

In April this year, TKM is understood to have put forward a proposal to set up the plant after the Budget for 2012-13 spared diesel vehicles from additional taxes.

There has been a demand to increase taxes of diesel passenger vehicles from different quarters to prevent usage of the subsidised fuel for "luxury". However, the automobile industry has been asking the government to deregulate diesel price in line with petrol.

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/auto/art...n-india-310400

[nandan_ks]

Microsoft Creates Guinness World Record With Over 2500 Coders In App Marathon held at Bangalore

The Hindu

Deccan Herald

[ullasavadan]

Nandan, were you part of this?

[nandan_ks]

Illa Ullas, naanu Microsoft technologies alli work maadolla

[dino_srk]

To develop new scientific approaches for treatment of diseases like cancer, India's Department of Biotechnology and the University of Cambridge are setting up a new initiative for chemical biology and molecular therapeutics at inStem, Bangalore.

Funded by the DBT, the initiative will be conducted in collaboration with the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the University of Cambridge said in a release today. The DBT will provide the rupee equivalent of 11 million pounds for the research, in which researchers will combine methods from genetics, chemistry, cell biology, biochemistry and imaging to understand the alterations in cellular systems that underlie human diseases, and identify ways to correct them using drugs.

The initiative is expected to develop powerful new scientific approaches for the treatment of diseases like cancer, integrating expertise from the basic and clinical sciences in India, the university said. The initiative is expected to create a multidisciplinary environment for training young researchers and physicians in the translation of fundamental research to clinical application.


Professor Venkitaraman, who is the Ursula Zoellner Professor of Cancer Research, University of Cambridge and Director, Medical Research Council Cancer Cell Unit, said: "Having originally trained and practiced as a physician in India, I am delighted that the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India will be supporting this exciting new initiative". He added: "The excellence of my colleagues in Bangalore, and the terrific research environment they have created, inspires confidence that we can work together not only to improve our fundamental understanding of the cellular abnormalities that cause human diseases like cancer but also to translate this information for the benefit of patients."

Source: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wir...re_757739.html