Archives December 2024

4th December 2024: Mr. Satyam Roychowdhury, Founder and Managing Director of Techno India Group, and Chancellor of Sister Nivedita University has been conferred with the prestigious title of Honorary Academician of 2024 by the renowned Albertina Academy of Fine Arts of Turin, Italy. The event, held in Kolkata today, marks a proud moment as Mr. Roychowdhury is the first Indian to receive this prestigious European honour, awarded by one of Italy’s premier state institutions under the Ministry of University and Research (MIUR).

Chief Guest H.E. Riccardo Dalla Costa, Hon’ble Consul General of Italy in Kolkata, visiting dignitaries from the Albertina Academy and other distinguished guests were present to honour Mr. Roychowdhury’s significant contributions to the cause of education and patronisation of the Arts for 40 years.

Congratulating the Chancellor, Prof. (Dr.) Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay, Vice Chancellor, Sister Nivedita University said, “This is a moment of immense pride not only for Sister Nivedita University but the entire nation. Mr. Satyam Roychowdhury’s recognition as the Honorary Academician of 2024 by the esteemed Albertina Academy of Fine Arts is a testament to his visionary leadership and unparalleled contributions to education and the society. His achievement inspires us all to strive for excellence and reinforces India’s growing presence on the global academic arena.”

Accepting the award, Mr. Satyam Roychowdhury, Founder and Managing Director of Techno India Group and Chancellor of Sister Nivedita University said, “I am deeply humbled to receive this recognition from this historic institution. This honour is not just a personal milestone but a testament to the power of education in transforming lives and encouraging global connections. I dedicate this honour to the entire community of our institution for their unwavering support and inspiration. This honour reinforces my belief in the limitless potential of Indian academia and the reservoir of our Arts on the world stage.”

04-December-2024, Bhubaneswar: In a significant step towards fostering Odisha’s growth story, Air India Express has announced the launch of four new routes from Bhubaneswar. These services will connect the city to Jaipur, the Pink City and capital of Rajasthan; Lucknow, the capital and cultural hub of Uttar Pradesh; Kochi, Kerala’s thriving industrial hub; and Patna, the capital of Bihar. This expansion reinforces Bhubaneswar’s connectivity to key regional and cultural centres across India.

The services to Jaipur and Kochi will commence on 3^rd January 2025, followed by the launch of flights to Lucknow on 4^th January 2025 and Patna on 15^th January 2025. Bookings are now open on Air India Express’s award-winning website, airindiaexpress.com, and other major booking platforms.

Air India Express now operates 104 weekly flights from Bhubaneswar, connecting the city directly to major destinations including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna, and Pune. The airline also offers convenient one-stop connectivity to several domestic and international destinations, serving the needs of business travellers, tourists, and the local community.

Additionally, Air India Express takes pride in showcasing Odisha’s cultural heritage with its Ikat livery, beautifully displayed on one of its newest aircraft. More than a weaving tradition, Ikat symbolises Odisha’s timeless artistry and vibrant cultural identity, serving as an inspiration to travellers and a tribute to the state’s rich legacy

The expansion of flight operations from Bhubaneswar will not only foster regional integration but also support key stakeholders, including personnel at the Chilka Naval base, students at universities in the state, and professionals in Odisha’s diverse industries. The airline offers special discounted fares and benefits on its website for members of the armed forces and their dependents, students, senior citizens, doctors, and nurses, ensuring a wide range of benefits for diverse passenger groups.

Air India Express continues its trajectory of rapid growth with the addition of these new routes, marking another milestone after surpassing the 50-destination mark recently. This year, the airline introduced several new routes and added new destinations to its growing network, with Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair), Jammu, and Bangkok being added this month alone. Operating a fleet of 90 aircraft, which is expected to cross 100 shortly, Air India Express is shaping the future of aviation in India by enhancing connectivity, celebrating regional diversity, and fostering meaningful connections between cities and communities.

From Bhubaneswar: Air India Express operates 104 weekly flights from Bhubaneswar connecting directly to 11 domestic destinations including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna, and Pune. Additionally, the airline provides one-stop connectivity to 17 domestic destinations: Agartala, Ayodhya, Bagdogra, Goa, Guwahati, Imphal, Indore, Jammu, Kozhikode, Mangaluru, Ranchi, Srinagar, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair), Surat, Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayawada, and Vishakhapatnam and nine international destinations: Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dammam, Dubai, Kuwait, Muscat, Riyadh, Sharjah, and Singapore.

Generative AI took the world by storm in recent years after several chatbots, like ChatGPT, entered the public domain. The chatbots generated human-like text with a speed that seemed almost magical – writing sonnets in the style of Shakespeare, translating texts between numerous languages, churning out computer code and so much more.

Businesses and business pundits saw the potential benefits immediately. However recent months have seen small but growing doubts about generative AI. Detractors say generative AI’s capabilities have been overhyped. Hallucinations – false statements that generative AI models can make – decrease its usefulness, and many businesses have yet to find an ideal strategy to use these tools. And though ChatGPT is one of the fastest-growing applications of all time, the proportion of people who say they use it regularly remains fairly rare.

In “The Impact of Technology in 2025 and Beyond: an IEEE Global Study,” a recent survey of global technology leaders, 91 percent of respondents agreed that “in 2025 there will be a generative AI reckoning as public fascination and perception shift into a greater understanding of and expectations for what the technology can and should do — in terms of accuracy of results, transparency around deepfakes and more.”

But the survey doesn’t anticipate a lasting stumbling block for generative AI. A sizeable majority (91%) also agreed that “generative AI innovation, exploration and adoption will continue at lightning speed in 2025.”

So, what’s in store for generative AI in 2025? What’s the product roadmap, and what impact will they have on how we work and live?

More Multimodal Capabilities

IEEE Senior Member Daozhuang Lin expects generative AI models to make it easier to provide images and videos from short text snippets in the coming years. Text-to-image, text-to-video and speech synthesis will improve, and models will achieve better contextual understanding across diverse inputs.

“The first step is the deep integration of multi-modal to create more complex, detailed, accurate and self-consistent content for consumers and even professional content creators,” Lin said.

Cleaning Up Accuracy and Bias

Concerns over hallucinations, accuracy and bias have also slowed the adoption of generative AI models. Bias may creep in when the models are trained on biased data. Some image-generating models may show a preference for people of a certain race.

“The developers of the model need to focus on how to remove the bias and ethical issues generated by AI in the process of consumer data training,” Lin said. “It’s important to guide users to more universal and long-lasting values and to guide the model to become more ‘kind’.”

Improved Context Window

One limitation generative AI model face is the amount of information they can process at one time in a prompt. This is referred to as the context window or context size. Imagine, for example, that you need to input a very long prompt – or description – in an attempt to generate an image. At some point, the generative AI model will not be able to process the entire prompt. The output will only reflect a portion of the prompt, omitting potentially important information.

In another scenario, you may need to have a conversation with the model about a long document. As the conversation progresses, the model may forget earlier parts of the conversation.

Improving the context window would allow generative AI models to handle more complex tasks and improve the coherence of their responses.

“The limit of what we can do with generative AI has yet to be reached; we are not at the plateau of this technology,” said Hector Azpurua, an IEEE Graduate Student Member.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this press release is provided by a third party. We do not endorse or guarantee its accuracy. Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Shreyas Web Media Solutions Pvt Ltd.

04-12-2024: The India International Industrial Exhibition will be held from December 13 to 15 at the KINFRA International Exhibition Centre, Kakkanad, Kochi. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the event on December 14 at 5 PM. Other dignitaries attending include Industries Minister P. Rajeev, Public Works and Tourism Minister P.A. Mohammed Riyas, and senior officials like Principal Secretary (Industries) Mohammed Hanish IAS, MSME Director G.S. Prakash, KSIDC MD S. Harikishore IAS, KINFRA MD Santhosh Koshy Thomas, and Industry Director Mir Mohammed Ali IAS. Thrikkakara MLA Uma Thomas, EX-MLA V. K. C. Mammed Koya, SLBC Convenor K.S Pradeep and representatives of Kerala State Small Industries Association (KSSIA) will also be present.

Organized by KSSIA and Metro Mart in association with the Kerala Government’s Department of Industries, KINFRA, KSIDC, and the Central MSME Ministry, the three-day expo aims to promote industrial growth. Over 300 prominent machinery manufacturers from across India and abroad, including representatives from China, the UK, UAE, Germany, and Korea, will showcase their products.
The expo will feature seminars, presentations, product launches, and buyer-seller meetings. Programs like vendor development initiatives and discussions on leveraging artificial intelligence for industrial growth will also be conducted. Aspiring entrepreneurs will have opportunities to network with machinery manufacturers, while financial assistance for new ventures and expansions will be provided through help desks set up by various banks.

Special stalls will be arranged under the leadership of the Central MSME Ministry to support MSME enterprises. Major organizations like Cochin Shipyard and K-BIP will set up dedicated pavilions.

KSSIA State President A. Nissaruddin stated that the participation of leading industrial players in the India International Industrial Exhibition will boost Kerala’s industrial growth by providing technical knowledge and enhancing the financial security of businesses. Chairman of the organizing committee K.P. Ramachandran Nair mentioned that the event expects over 10,000 trade visitors and aims to link local industries with global trade networks. The expo will follow a green protocol to ensure the use of eco-friendly products.
The exhibition will display state-of-the-art machinery for sectors such as construction, automotive, manufacturing, hospitality, and agriculture, including robotics, sensors, and AI-enabled technologies. CEO Siji Nair emphasized that this will greatly benefit Kerala’s industrial landscape.

For the Valedictory Function, Financial Minister K.N Balagopal, Revenue Minister K. Rajan, Industry Director Mir Mohammed Ali IAS, Ernakulam District Collector N.S.K Umesh, Additional Directors of Department of Industries and Commerce Rajeev G and Dr. K.S. Kripakumar, CEO of K-BIP Suraj S Nair and General Manager of District Industries Centre Najeeb P A will be in attendance.

4th December 2024: EKA (Pinnacle Mobility Solutions Pvt. Ltd.), a leading electric mobility & technology company, is proud to announce the appointment of its Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), Mr. Sohel Merchant. This new appointment underlines how EKA as a brand is recognized globally and attracting top talents around the globe to make its mark in the EV industry worldwide.

Mr. Merchant has worked in the automotive industry for more than 20 years in the areas of Vehicle Engineering and Program Management. He holds professional experience in some of the most revolutionary companies, including Canoo Inc., Tesla, Faraday Future Inc., and the Ford Motor Company. Prior to EKA, he was the co-founder and CTO at Canoo, where he helped design and innovative electric platforms and vehicles for the commercial sector, the US Department of Defence, and NASA. At Tesla, Mr. Merchant was involved in the design of Model S and Model X vehicles, which set up a new standard in design and performance.

Expressing his enthusiasm, Mr. Sohel Merchant stated, “I am honored to join EKA Mobility at such a transformative time in the EV industry. I look forward to working with the team to create great and valuable EV solutions.”

Speaking on the appointment, Dr. Sudhir Mehta, Founder & Chairman, EKA said, “We are excited to welcome Sohel Merchant as Chief Innovation Officer at EKA Mobility. With his invaluable global experience, Sohel joins EKA’s robust senior leadership team, which now stands as one of the strongest in the industry. Together with our global management team, EKA is well-positioned to lead the electric mobility revolution, delivering cutting-edge solutions and redefining the future of sustainable transportation.”

Mr. Merchant earned a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iowa. He is a professional with work experience across the international automotive industry, a strategic innovative thinker, a leader, and a doer. This is a major step in EKA’s evolution to define the next era of green mobility.

The real estate sector has emerged as the top beneficiary of Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) in the first half of FY25, attracting a significant INR.75,468 crore, accounting for 17% of the INR.4,49,384 crore AIF investments across all sectors, as per SEBI data compiled by Anarock. This marks a 10% rise from INR.68,540 crore at the close of FY24.

In addition to AIFs, the sector raised INR.12,801 crore through Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs) during the same period, representing another 17% of total investments. These numbers underscore the robust investor confidence in India’s real estate market, driven by growing demand and declining unsold inventory across major cities.

The real estate sector’s performance was bolstered by an increasing reliance on equity financing, particularly through Category II AIFs, which include real estate funds, private equity, and debt funds. Category II AIFs have accounted for nearly 80% of total AIF commitments over the last five years, showcasing their flexibility and tailored investment strategies.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have also ramped up their participation in Category II AIFs, matching domestic investors in funding key real estate projects.

Mr. Prashant Sharma, President of NAREDCO Maharashtra, highlighted the pivotal role of AIFs in bridging critical funding gaps in the real estate sector. “The recordINR.75,468 crore invested in real estate through AIFs in H1 FY25 underscores the sector’s resilience and growth potential. With robust sales in major cities and a consistent decline in unsold inventory, investors recognize the sector’s long-term value. AIFs are not just funding projects; they are shaping the future of urban infrastructure and housing in India.”

Adding to this, Mr. Kuldeep Jain, Founder and CEO of Build Capital, emphasized the role of AIFs in transforming the real estate investment landscape. “The growing reliance on Category II AIFs highlights their transformative role in reshaping the real estate sector. These investment vehicles not only channel significant capital into the industry but also bring in-depth expertise in partnering with reputed developers, ensuring strategic asset selection and prime location analysis, and achieving timely financial closure. This comprehensive approach not only facilitates project completion and delivery but also drives higher and secured returns for investors. By addressing the increasing demand for housing and urban infrastructure, AIFs reaffirm real estate as a preferred asset class for institutional investors, combining stability with consistent value creation to enhance its long-term investment appeal.”

As per Anarock data, more than 1.36 million units have been launched in the top seven cities between 2021 and end-September 2024. Concurrently, about 1.44 million housing units have been sold in these cities year-to-date. Strong demand led to a more than 10% decline in unsold housing inventory in this period, despite the high rate of supply addition. These trends are a testament to the sector’s growing appeal to institutional investors.

The consistent rise in AIF commitments, supported by both domestic and foreign investors, is expected to further fuel the growth of India’s real estate sector. As developers tap into these resources to meet rising housing demand and infrastructure needs, the sector is poised to maintain its dominant position in the investment landscape.

Thales today announced the launch of Data Risk Intelligence, a groundbreaking Imperva Data Security Fabric (DSF) solution that proactively addresses the risks to data wherever it resides. This is the first solution uniting the risk and threat identification capabilities of the Imperva Data Security Fabric with the data protection capabilities of the Thales CipherTrust Data Security Platform, following Thales’s strategic acquisition of Imperva in December 2023.

In today’s modern digital landscape, organisations across the globe including in India face challenges in managing security across an ever-growing attack surface while maintaining compliance with regulatory standards. With the growing cybersecurity threat, the regulatory landscape in India is becoming more stringent requiring robust cybersecurity measures to safeguard sensitive data. With data and operations spread across cloud, on-premises and hybrid systems, security teams require constant and comprehensive visibility into where their data is, the types of data they have, and the potential risks to that data. In fact, according to the 2024 Thales Data Threat Report, 98% of enterprises in India reported an increase in threats compared to the previous year. This highlights that organisations’ need to adopt a multifaced approach to identify cybersecurity risks and implement innovative solutions is becoming more important to safeguard themselves against the ever-evolving threats

Empowering Security Teams and SOCs with Enhanced Visibility and Control
The combined intelligence and contextual insights from Data Risk Intelligence provide a unified visibility of risks to critical data with a unique view of the strength of encryption for data across an organisation’s entire data estate. With this enhanced visibility, Data Risk Intelligence empowers CIOs, CISOs, and data risk specialists to accurately identify the most critical data that are at risk by severity and likelihood, enabling them to effectively prioritise risk mitigation with clear recommendations for corrective action.
Data Risk Intelligence delivers a highly confident risk score and clear recommendations for corrective action that are based on a wide-ranging set of data risk indicators through advanced analytics, built upon user permissions, data source vulnerabilities, use of encryption following NIST standards, monitoring of suspicious activities, and other customisable inputs.

Todd Moore, Vice President, Data Security products at Thales: “The ability to view data risk in key dimensions across organisational risk, asset risk, and regulatory risk in one place is extremely impactful. Data Risk Intelligence is the first of many integrations between the Thales and Imperva platforms that empower our customers to protect their data and all the paths to it. Through our combined platforms, Thales has all the tools to help our customers understand their data security risks and provide a clear set of actions to mitigate these risks.”

“The risks to enterprise data are multi-dimensional and organisations are struggling to address the volume and breadth of these risks while still maintaining optimal business operations,” said Jennifer Glenn, Research Director, Data and Information Security at IDC Security and Trust Group. “Centralising data risk visibility and management offers valuable context about the data – and it’s vulnerabilities – enabling organisations to prioritise protection where it’s needed most.”

Key Benefits of Data Risk Intelligence:
• Enhanced Risk Prioritisation: Combines risk-related intelligence from Data Security Fabric and CipherTrust Data Security Platform to deliver precise risk scores that drive confident decisions.
• Comprehensive Visibility: Provides a unified view of data risks across the entire data estate, reducing complexity, delivering risk indicators, and recommending protective measures.
• Customisable Risk Indicators: Allows organisations to tailor risk indicators to their specific environment, highlighting the most critical threats.
• Encryption Integration: Leverages the encryption capabilities of the CipherTrust Data Security Platform to ensure data protection at all levels.
• Advanced Analytics: Utilises posture-based and machine-learning behavioural risk indicators to identify and prioritise the highest-risk data.

Hosted by Mohit Jain of Dhoomimal Art Centre

The art world came alive at the Shridharini Gallery with the preview of Pankaj Kumar’s latest exhibition, hosted by Mohit Jain, the visionary owner of Dhoomimal Art Centre. This compelling showcase invites viewers to immerse themselves in the eternal rhythms of nature through the evocative works of celebrated artist Pankaj.

Pankaj’s creations delve deeply into themes of creation, transformation, and renewal, portraying nature’s cycles through bold grids, rhythmic geometric patterns, and textured layers of materials such as charcoal dust, rice paper, and cloth fragments. His works reflect the ancient Vedic concept of Brahmand—the primal state of the universe—capturing the ceaseless ebb and flow of the natural world.

“Nature is always in motion,” shares Pankaj. “Even though it repeats itself, no two moments are ever truly the same. Painting allows me to connect with that energy and express it—it’s how I understand the world’s constant evolution.”

Born in rural India, Pankaj’s early experiences with nature deeply influenced his artistic journey. A graduate of Banaras Hindu University, his exhibitions across India have earned him widespread acclaim. His art speaks to those who find beauty in the subtle yet transformative cycles of life.

Mohit Jain reflected on his association with the artist:
“My first encounter with Pankaj’s work was in 2007, but I rejected it outright as it seemed derivative. However, when he returned in 2009 with a fresh body of work, I was struck by its originality and power. His first solo exhibition in 2014 was a resounding success. Pankaj’s evolution as an artist has been remarkable, and it’s an honor to curate his second solo exhibition today.”

Prominent guests at the event included Manju Mansheet Rai, Suvir Saran, Shamain Singh, Ashok Vajpayee, and Niladri Paul. The gathering witnessed engaging conversations around Pankaj’s distinctive style, which fuses abstraction with profound philosophical insights.

Each canvas invites viewers into a meditative exploration of energy, form, and motion, transcending decorative appeal to offer a deeper reflection on life’s constant evolution. As guests marveled at Pankaj’s vibrant color palette and intricate details, the evening became a celebration of artistic renewal and the beauty of transformation.

December 04, 2024: PhonePe, today announced the launch of a new Dengue and Malaria Insurance Plan on its platform, starting at just ₹59 per year. This affordable health coverage plan offers comprehensive year-round coverage of up to ₹1 lakh for medical expenses related to vector and air-borne diseases. This insurance cover also ensures users, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, are financially protected against unexpected medical expenses caused by such illnesses throughout the year.

This plan offers PhonePe users extensive coverage against 10+ vector-borne and air-borne diseases including malaria, dengue, chikungunya, filariasis, Japanese encephalitis, swine flu, bird flu, typhoid, pulmonary tuberculosis, and meningitis. The cover includes hospitalisation, diagnostics, and ICU stays. Unlike other seasonal plans, the coverage with this plan is not limited to the monsoons. It extends throughout the year, ensuring that PhonePe users have access to year-round protection and continuous coverage. Additionally, users can instantly purchase, manage, and file claims via the PhonePe app, with a 100% digital claims process, ensuring faster settlements and a seamless user experience. Even working professionals with access to corporate health insurance can choose to avail this coverage as it offers additional protection for more specific health risks.

Commenting on the launch, Vishal Gupta, CEO at PhonePe Insurance Broking Services, said, “At PhonePe, we are committed to making insurance accessible and affordable to all. The launch of this product is a testament to our commitment of offering our users comprehensive coverage round the year. Through this, we aim to empower our users to manage health risks effectively while eliminating financial barriers to quality care. Our goal is to provide tailor-made insurance solutions to underserved populations across the country by leveraging our expertise in digital distribution, thus ensuring peace of mind for millions of Indians.”

Dec.4, 2024 — Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) today reported results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended Oct. 27, 2024.

Fourth Quarter Results

Applied generated record revenue of $7.05 billion. On a GAAP basis, the company reported gross margin of 47.3 percent, record operating income of $2.05 billion or 29.0 percent of net revenue, and earnings per share (EPS) of $2.09.

On a non-GAAP basis, the company reported gross margin of 47.5 percent, record operating income of $2.06 billion or 29.3 percent of net revenue, and record EPS of $2.32.

The company generated $2.58 billion in cash from operations and distributed $1.77 billion to shareholders including $1.44 billion in share repurchases and $329 million in dividends.

Full Year Results

In fiscal 2024, Applied generated record revenue of $27.18 billion. On a GAAP basis, the company recorded gross margin of 47.5 percent, record operating income of $7.87 billion or 28.9 percent of net sales, and record EPS of USD8.61.

On a non-GAAP adjusted basis, the company reported gross margin of 47.6 percent, record operating income of USD7.92 billion or 29.2 percent of net sales, and record EPS of USD8.65.

The company generated a USD8.68 billion in cash from operations and distributed $5.01 billion to shareholders including $3.82 billion in share repurchases and USD1.19 billion in dividends.

“Applied Materials’ technology leadership and strong execution drove record Q4 and fiscal 2024 performance, our fifth consecutive year of growth,” said Gary Dickerson, President and CEO. “Our portfolio of products and services uniquely positions us to enable our customers in their pursuit of AI and energy-efficient computing. As these key drivers of semiconductor innovation continue to grow in importance, the industry’s roadmap is becoming increasingly dependent on materials engineering, where Applied is the clear leader.”

Results Summary

A reconciliation of the GAAP and non-GAAP results is provided in the financial tables included in this release. See also “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” section