Express Computer (Vol.26, No.2) February, 2015 by Indian Express

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MAKING EXISTING CITIES SMART A

THE TECHNOLOGY FOR SMART CITY ALREADY EXISTS, THE PROBLEM LIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLICIES THAT WILL FACILITATE THE ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER MANAGEMENT OF CITY LIFE.

smart city can mean almost anything, so when there is talk of developing 100 smart cities, you can’t be sure about the degree of smartness in city life that is being contemplated. The smart city rhetoric paints the picture of ultra-modern hubs where digital technologies are deployed for the efficient management of everything from roads and water to waste and electricity. Despite building new metro lines, flyovers, BRT corridors and subways, the traffic gridlock in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and other metros continues to get worse. With the number of cars on the road on the rise, perhaps it is time to implement smart technologies for better traffic management — magnetic sensors to monitor the traffic flow, synchronised traffic lights, cameras on every road and centralised computer system to make the traffic flow smooth. The technology for smart city is already there, but a smart city signifies a disruptive change in the way city operations are managed and how we live and work. The traditional systems are so deeply entrenched that it is difficult to implement the smart systems for better management of city life. Most of the 100 smart cities that are being planned will be greenfield projects, and currently they are not even at the planning stage—essentially they are nothing more than a floating abstraction. Even, if land can be found for these smart cities, they will take decades to come up. What do those smart cities, which in the lexicon of techno-flâneurs sound like hi-tech panopticons, mean for ordinary citizens who live in the metros that are anything but smart? There is one way by which we will eventually make a natural progress towards smart cities. The ever growing web of connected technology — Internet of Things — promises to put most cities and towns on the fast-track to being “smart,” by getting all sectors or things that have till now been working independently to talk to each other and work together. But for IoT to take root in the city administration, the government will have to create enough room for the technologies and standards to evolve and get implemented. With IoT round the corner, the city governance and urban living can be as connected as the functions on your smartphone, but for that the system of governance has to change.

anoop.verma@expressindia.com

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contents

Case study

feature

ISKCON TEMPLE’S TRYST WITH IT

The Bangalore-based Sri Radha Krishna Temple right-sized its IT service desk and got a better view of its servers and network through the deployment of solutions from ManageEngine.

FOOTPRINTS ON THE SANDS OFTIME: AJOURNEYTHROUGH INDIA’S IT LANDSCAPE R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM

14 4

DO ENTERPRISES REALLY NEED A BYOD POLICY? With BYOD becoming a norm, it is becoming important for organisations to chart out a well defined BYOD strategy for avoiding data breaches and violation of privacy

ORACLE HELPS ACCELYA KALE SPEED UP DATA PROCESSING BY UP TO 2.5X

Accelya Kale used Oracle’s Exadata to develop efficient solutions for enabling airlines to handle seasonal peak loads and deliver accurate daily revenue reports to their commercial and finance departments within stringent timeframes.

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budget 22

interviews

GREATEXPECTATIONS FROM BUDGET 20

Investors, businessmen and citizens are counting on the budget to be a bold step in the direction of achieving the promise that Narendra Modi made during his election campaign — “achhe din aane waale hain.”

RAJESH MAURYA Country Manager - India & Saarc, Fortinet

“Fortinet helps organisations build and grow their ITsecurity infrastructure” 21

TARUN KAURA Director – Technology Sales, Symantec India

“ITin an enterprise is now intertwined with business strategy” 29

NIRANJAN BAL General Manager IT, Hindalco Industries

Partner-Tax (IT/ITes), KPMG-India

CIO, Safexpress Private Limited

Vice President & India Head of Research, Gartner

UMESH MEHTA

SUNIL KHANNA

Sr. VP & CIO - India at Jubilant Life Sciences

President and Managing Director, Emerson Network Power, India

VIVEK SOOD CEO, Uninor

VARGHESE THOMAS Director - Corporate Communications - India & Saarc, BlackBerry

26 28

in the news

Executive Director, MAIT

President, NASSCOM

» Government plans to roll out Wi-Fi in top 25 cities by June 2015 » ‘Make in India’ Facebook page adds one member every 3 seconds » Finance Ministry to use Facebook, Twitter to push disinvestment

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VIPIN SAWHNEY India Country Manager, Silicon Image

S NARSING RAO Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Telangana.

“Telangana is Committed to Development of ITIndustry”

» E-commerce sales in India to touch $7.69 billion in 2015 » E-passports to be rolled out by 2016

CEO, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)

“Connectivity Between Mobiles and Consumer Electronics”

» India’s Internet economy can reach $200 billion

DR GOVIND

“Internet domain names in Indian Languages”

ANWAR SHIRPURWALA R CHANDRASHEKHAR

Managing Director & Regional Vice President – Asia, TIBCO Software

“We clearly have an edge over the competitors in scale, complexity and speed”

NAVEEN AGGARWAL PARTHA IYENGAR

ANJANI KUMAR

NEERAJ SHAABI

MUKTESH K. PARDESHI Joint Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India

“From handwritten passports to e-passports” FEBRUARY, 2015

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Express Computer Reg. No. REGD.NO.MCS/066/2015-17, RNI Regn. No. MAHENG/49926/90 Printed for the proprietors,The Indian Express Limited by Ms. Vaidehi Thakar at Indigo Press, (India) Pvt. Ltd. Plot No. 1c/716, off Dadoji Konddeo Cross Road, Byculla (E), Mumbai 400027 and Published from Express Towers, 2nd Floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400021. (Editorial & Administrative Offices: Express Towers, 1st Floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400021) Editor : Anoop Verma (*Responsible for selection of News under the PRB Act.) Copyright @ 2012 The Indian Express Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner, electronic or otherwise, in whole or in part, without prior written permission is prohibited.

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INTERVIEW R S SHARMA SECRETARY, DeitY, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

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“IoT WILL BRING EFFICIENCY TO THE DELIVERY OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES” “Government will endeavour to enable the development of appropriate standards or protocols for IoT in consultation with the industry and experts. Wide consultations with all the relevant stakeholders will be held for finalising the standards and protocols in this domain,” says R S Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. In conversation with Anoop Verma.

Please provide an overview of the work that has been done under the Digital India initiative? Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple ministries and departments. It weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single, comprehensive vision so that each of them can be implemented as part of a larger goal. All the initiatives under this programme have a definitive completion EXPRESS COMPUTER

time target and will be tracked accordingly. Majority of the initiatives are planned to be realised within next three years. Many components of Digital India are already live and have started providing services. On Internet of Things, Deity has released a paper which takes cognisance of how billions of interconnected things will have an impact on governance and business.

What are the ways by which IoT can have an impact on governance? We are of the view that IoT will be helpful in bringing efficiency to the delivery of government services. IoT can help automate solutions to problems faced by various sectors like agriculture, health services, energy, security, disaster management, etc. through remotely connected devices. It will be critical in several areas which include FEBRUARY, 2015

INTERVIEW R S SHARMA SECRETARY, DeitY, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

COMPONENTS OFDIGITAL INDIA ARE ALREADY LIVE

IT platforms for messages – The portal was released on 15th August 2014.A mass messaging application has been developed that will cover elected representatives and all Government employees. Over 1.36 crore mobile and 22 lakh emails are part of the database. ● Government Greetings to be e-Greetings - e-Greetings portal is live since 14th August 2014. Prime Minister sent the first e-Greeting on 15th August, 2014.A Basket of e-Greetings templates are available on this platform. All the government greetings would now be e-Greetings through this platform. ● Biometric Attendance – has become operational in Central Govt. offices in Delhi. Over 40,000 Government employees from 150 organisations have already registered on the common Bio-metric attendance portal (http://attendance.gov.in). Over 1000 bio-metric attendance terminals are under installation at entry gates of various Central Government buildings. ● ‘National Portal for Lost & Found children’ – This has been commenced. Beta version of the portal is ready. ● Secure email within government – e-mail would be the primary mode of communication in government. Phase-I upgradation for 10 lakh employees has been completed. In Phase II, infrastructure would be further upgraded to cover 50 lakh employees by March 2015. ● ‘Digital Locker’ to citizens – Architecture for Digital Locker has been finalised and pilot is under progress. ● Revamping exercise of Mission Mode and other e-Governance Projects – Several e-Governance projects, viz.Transport, PDS, e-Prisons, Scholarship, etc. are being revamped.The objective is to get rid of redundant applications which run in isolation within the same domain. DeitY has also issued guidelines to adopt Common Application Software which would be built with key considerations like Cloud architecture, Mobile integration, Open source, Open Application Programming Interfaces to exchange information and a friendly GUI design. ●

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telemedicine, women safety, water management, waste management, supply chain and logistics, etc. With IoT there are lot of avenues for industries, viz. telecom operators, software providers, system integrators, OEMs, etc. This will also lead to job creation and overall boost to the economy. Obviously some kind of standards will be required for enabling the things connected to Internet to communicate with each other, with government departments and with people. Should government come up with regulations for enabling the development of appropriate standards or protocols? Or should the development of the standards be best left to the market? Government will endeavour to enable the development of appropriate standards or protocols for IoT in consultation with the industry and experts. Wide consultations with all the relevant stakeholders will be held for finalising the standards and protocols in this domain. What kind of role will Aadhaar play in identification of individuals in the IoT ecosystem? Aadhaar is a concrete example of a largescale, real-world deployment of a system that provides authentication of human users. The Aadhaar identity platform is the largest biometric database in the world and serves users ranging from LPG consumers, MNREGA workers, PDS, remittance and scholarship beneficiaries, etc., all of which use their Aadhaar number to avail various benefits. With the advent of smart sensors, identification or verification of a person through Aadhaar authentication would be easier and faster. What is your view on the kind of standards that should be there for effective management of IoT ecosystem? In order to promote standards around IoT technologies, processes, interoperability and services developed across the country, various standards will be considered. These include - IoT standardisation; spectrum energy FEBRUARY, 2015

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communication protocols standards; standards for communication within and outside the cloud; international quality/integrity standards for data creation, data, traceability; standards for energy consumption; safety standards (for example, if devices/sensors are used on humans); privacy and security standards. What cues are you getting from the observation of the market? Based on the observations, various technology areas will be considered while developing standards. These EXPRESS COMPUTER

Electronic Manufacturing – Target Net Zero Imports’is one of the pillars of Digital India programme.

include factors like: Identification Technology—development of open framework for IoT; Architecture Technology- IoT architecture, platform interoperability; Communication Technology—ultra low power chipsets, on chip antennas, ultra low power single chip radios, ultra low power system on chip, etc; Network Technology – selfaware and self-organising networks, storage and power networks, hybrid networking technologies; Software and Algorithms—Next generation IoT based social software, enterprise applications; Hardware—Multi protocol/standard FEBRUARY, 2015

INTERVIEW R S SHARMA SECRETARY, DeitY, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

readers, sensors, actuators etc.; Data & Signal processing technology; Power and Energy storage technologies Energy harvesting and conversion, long range wireless power; Security and Privacy technologies; Material Technology – Silicon, semiconductor manufacturing, etc.

transparency in the functioning of Government and also open avenues for many more innovative uses of Government Data to give different perspective. Confidential data would not be published. What is your plan for capacity development (human and technology) for IoT specific skill sets? To promote capacity building, Government of India will support creation of Resource Centers & Testbeds as a common experimental facility to help the community to experiment IoT devices and applications by combining various IoT technologies. Also, A Centre of Excellence for Internet of Things (CoE-IoT) will be set-up to support startups, SMEs, students and other innovators in productising their ideas. The CoE-IoT will be set up in major cities for Internet of Things innovation housing hardware design tools, wireless development kits, application sensors, software tools, training on specific technologies, industry interface etc. The industry liaising will be the responsibility of our industry partner NASSCOM, while ERNET will provide academic interfacing.

With so many things connected to the Internet, there could be privacy related concerns. What can be done to ensure that the IoT ecosystem functions with efficiency and the privacy is also safeguarded? Privacy must be ensured to prevent unauthorised access. Internet of Things needs to be built to ensure safe and easy user control. Consumer needs confidence to embrace IoT to enjoy potential benefits. In order to prevent unauthorised use of private information, security, trust and privacy management is needed in a dynamic environment. The following areas need special emphasis: ● Authentication and data integrity in intelligent network devices ● Privacy in heterogeneous sets of devices ● Technology for decentralised authentication and trust ● Technologies for encryption and data protection ● Security and trust for cloud computing ● Legal and liability issues ● Privacy policy management across different smart devices ● Wireless security at physical layer Where will you store the massive amount of data that will be generated as a result of IoT? How can we differentiate on what “data will service the citizens” and what will remain confidential? Open Government Data (OGD) Platform (data.gov.in) is a platform for supporting Open Data initiative of Government of India. The portal is intended to be used by the Ministries/ Departments to publish datasets, documents, services, tools and applications collected by them for public use. It intends to increase 12

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Internet of Things needs to be built to ensure safe and easy user control.

What steps are being taken to encourage electronics manufacturing in the country? ‘Electronic Manufacturing – Target Net Zero Imports’ is one of the pillars of Digital India programme. The focus is on promoting electronics manufacturing in the country with the target of NET ZERO Imports by 2020 as a striking demonstration of intent. The Government of India has taken several steps to promote manufacturing and investment in this sector, which puts India high on the list of potential places to invest. One of our key initiatives is the National Policy on Electronics (NPE). Significant progress has been made by Government of India to establish a strong foundation for the NPE (2012) framework. This will help in value added manufacturing involving medium and high technologies. FEBRUARY, 2015

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Please tell us about some of the specific initiatives that are being taken to promote electronics sector? The Government of India has started a number of schemes to promote electronics manufacturing in the country.These include: Electronic Manufacturing Clusters Scheme which provides 50% of the cost for development of infrastructure and common facilities in Greenfield clusters (undeveloped / underdeveloped) and 75% of the cost for Brownfield clusters, an area where a significant number of existing EMC exists. Land can be made available in several of the new Electronic Manufacturing Clusters being supported by the government of India. Currently around 30 Electronic Manufacturing clusters are notified and the government

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is targeting for 200 Electronic Manufacturing clusters by 2020. In order to give preference to the domestically manufactured goods, we are ensuring that the extent of government procurement will not be less than 30%. Around 30 electronic products are already notified under this scheme.

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Electronic Development Funds for Research & Development and Innovation in Electronics sector is under active consideration to support start-ups in electronics and IP generation in the area of electronics.

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Government has accorded approval for setting up of two Semiconductor Wafer Fabrication (FAB) manufacturing facilities in the country.

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Government of India will fund PhD students in Universities across the country for research in industry specific needs. 3000 PhDs will be generated through this program in the area of electronics & IT/ITES.

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For providing support for skill development, government of India provides 75% to 100% of training cost for industry specific skills for skilled and semi-skilled workers.

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Government of India has also announce a national scheme for providing financial support to MSMEs to promote manufacturing,to build quality into Indian manufacturing & also to encourage exporters.

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anoop.verma@expressindia.com

FEBRUARY, 2015

FEATURE

NASSCOM

FOOTPRINTS ON THE SANDS OF TIME

A JOURNEY THROUGH INDIA’S IT LANDSCAPE “The IT industry has grown a 1000 times during the last 20 years, so it is not difficult for it to scale itself up to an even higher level,” says R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM. BY ANOOP VERMA

“M

y entry into the field of IT was a result of chance events, rather than planning,” says R Chandrashekhar. “I could not have planned a career in IT, as when I was a student at

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IIT, there was no program in IT or computer science.” Yet his chance foray into the field of IT, led Chandrashekhar to undertake some of the most transformational initiatives, during the years when he was serving as an IAS FEBRUARY, 2015

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FEATURE

NASSCOM

officer, to bring e-Governance to various government departments. “When I joined the IAS, I had the opportunity to see how the government functions, from the highest to the lowest level,” says Chandrashekhar, “and as IT gained wider acceptability in large organisations, I and many of my colleagues in the government were in a position to introduce computerisation and automation in several key areas.” Chandrashekhar’s bonding with IT started between 1986 and 1988 when he took a break of 2 years from service to take up a Masters in Computer Science at Pennsylvania State University. Why did he choose Computer Science as a subject for his Masters, which was a relatively new specialisation during those days? He accepts that there was not enough newsflow about IT and Computers, but his interest was aroused in the subject despite the limited information that he had on the subject. Further, the desire to improve the system of governance was not the sole reason he decided to take up a Masters in Computer Science. He asserts that he was genuinely interested in computers. “After my Masters, I came back with the realisation that IT can have a tremendous impact in improving the system of governance. If IT is used more appropriately, it can lead to the government becoming more friendly towards citizens.” The level of interest in IT kept rising in the years that followed and this made it easier for him to find areas where computerisation, automation or application development had to be done. The late 90s found him getting actively engaged in getting investments in these areas and creating capacities and skill development. His interactions with the IT industry, which was relatively small during those early days, grew and he could see how many people inside the government and outside were becoming struck by the kind of difference that computerisation and IT could make.

Growing eGovernance in the country During the 1980s, even though some people in the government had started realising that IT could be a game changer 16

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for governance, not much could be achieved as majority of the people remained unconvinced due to lack of knowledge or some other reason. “This was a time when even an elementary system like a Word Processor, was looked upon as an advanced technology that could make some difference,” Chandrashekhar reminisces.

The major thrust towards computerisation started only in the mid 90s. “This was when the entire system woke up to the power of IT,” he says. “The idea took root that there was no alternative to eGovernance.” The first National Conference on eGovernance took place in Hyderabad in 1997, when Chandrashekhar was the IT Secretary of FEBRUARY, 2015

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For adequately catering to the diverse character that the ITindustry has now acquired,NASSCOM is restructuring itself”

next few years some of the landmark eGovernance projects of the country were launched, and as Joint Secretary in DIT, Chandrashekhar had the chance of making seminal contributions to the development of the policies that paved way for the creation of myriad eGovernance systems. Many successful projects — MCA21, Passport Sewa, eBiz, Income Tax, etc., — were launched and successfully executed. All these systems were transformational as they led to a more efficient and transparent way of managing the work of governance. “These are the footprints in the sands of time,” proudly says Chandrashekhar. “Whenever I meet any person who has been involved in the successful implementation of an e-Governance project, I can’t fail to note the pride that he or she feels in the task that was accomplished. The prime movers of e-Governance continue to derive satisfaction from the outcome that they have made possible.”

The Early Days of NASSCOM

Andhra Pradesh. For two consecutive years the Conference was organised in Hyderabad and after that the tradition developed of holding it in different cities every year. In the year 2002, he was posted in the central government as Joint Secretary in the Department of IT. Now he was at the right place at the right time. During the EXPRESS COMPUTER

Over a period of two decades Chandrashekhar had been following the course of events at NASSCOM, primarily because the kind of job that he was doing in the Government was connected to IT. “I was impressed by the work that Dewang Mehta, who I think was called the Executive Director during those early days, did at NASSCOM during the 1990s,” he says. During those days India’s IT industry was a fledging entity and the key objective of NASSCOM was to ensure

that India’s capabilities in IT were recognised around the world. Most Western countries were not yet ready to acknowledge that IT work could be done in India. It was a major struggle for the pioneers at NASSCOM to convince industry leaders and government leaders in other countries about India’s prowess in IT. “During those days I happened to be in the Commerce Ministry and I was dealing with export promotion of IT software,” informs Chandrashekhar. “So I knew about the efforts that Dewang was making. A tireless advocate of Indian IT, he used to frequently travel to different countries and talk about India’s ability in the area of IT software.” “In the early 1990s, the World Bank came up with a study that the Indian IT industry would reach $1 billion in 1996. When this report came out, the IT industry was worth only about $100 million. So the figure of $1 billion seemed absurdly large. But in fact, the industry did touch $1 billion. It did so in 1997. The World Bank’s estimate was off only by few months.” Chandrashekhar makes the point that the challenges that India’s IT industry faced during the 1990s were quite different from what it faced a decade later or what it faces today. During the 1990s most of the work that was being done in India was based on cost arbitrage. People in other countries were not yet ready to entrust critical software development to the Indian IT industry.

The Growth Due to Y2K Factor “Suddenly the issue of Y2K loomed ahead for users of computer systems in all countries. From the point of view of the Indian IT industry, this proved to be a pretty useful turn of events,” says Chandrashekhar. To Indian IT companies, it brought lot of work as global companies wanted their entire software examined for the Y2K bug. As a logical or sometimes integral part of this work, many wanted to have their entire software rewritten. This project was time-bound, since it had to be completed before the year 2000. The global companies simply did not have the IT talent to cater to projects on such a scale. FEBRUARY, 2015

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NASSCOM

The need for using outside capabilities became absolutely critical. “Soon the Y2K problem passed away, but thanks to the work that Indian IT companies had done to tackle the problem, there was now a wide awareness about India’s IT talent. The Y2K issue provided countries like USA the opportunity to gain an good insight into the kind of advanced work that Indian IT professionals were capable of doing. Now more work was offered to Indian IT companies and we started delivering a whole range of software and related services to the world on a much wider scale. The IT industry in India had now moved beyond cost arbitrage, and got into advanced and comprehensive software development.” Despite the expanded base, the IT industry remained in a high growth phase; the industry was growing at 30% to 40% CAGR and some individual companies were growing at much higher rates. The work being done in India became more advanced, more comprehensive and more sophisticated. Eventually the stage came when the industry was delivering end to end services for management of IT infrastructure, management services, etc. The ability of the Indian IT industry rose to such a level that it was now in a position to provide services covering the entire range of IT.

The Global Meltdown In 2008, when the global meltdown took place, questions about the future of the industry were raised again and the industry faced trying times. “This was a period when many people opined that the bottom was falling off in international markets and global recession would force major companies to cut down their IT budgets,” says Chandrashekhar. With a smile he adds that the recession did not hit the IT industry as hard as people were expecting. “Yes, the rate of growth did come down, but the industry never started to contract. Even at the height of the global recession the IT industry in India was growing, albeit by single digits.” Yet for an industry that was accustomed to growing at 30% to 40% and more, single digit growth felt practically like 18

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The Y2K issue provided countries like USAthe opportunity to gain a good insight into the kind of advanced work that Indian ITprofessionals were capable of doing. decompressing. However, within a year or two of the advent of the global recession, it became clear that recession itself was forcing businesses across the world to become more efficient in order to survive. “Much of this efficiency was only possible through greater and better use of IT and so in a sense the Indian IT industry was able to find a niche for itself, whether there was recession or growth in the overall global economy.” Today the IT industry in India is growing at around 12% to 14%, but even in this lower rate of growth, Chandrashekhar finds a silver lining. “If you compare this rate of growth with the growth of the global economy in general, you realise that we are doing quite well,” he opines. “Today India’s IT industry is no longer a vehicle for merely providing IT services, the industry is also delivering business value that significantly impacts the bottomline of clients companies. We are helping global companies to reinvent and transform themselves by leveraging newer technologies, particularly the socalled disruptive technologies — Social Media, Mobility, Analytics, Cloud.” He emphasises that Indian IT is now increasingly about delivering business value and transformational value. Another factor, according to Chandrashekhar, that is working in favour of the Indian IT industry is the advancements that have taken place in the nation’s entrepreneurial and technological space. “Today our country

has the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world,” he informs. He points to the fact that Indian IT is no longer a monolithic industry, it is diverse and has branched off into different avenues and segments of IT. “We are involved in advanced R&D work both in hardware and software; a lot of hardware design related work is also being done here. Microsoft has its development centre in India.”

Challenges before NASSCOM Chandrashekhar is of the view that the challenges that NASSCOM faces today are far more complex. The IT industry has grown so diverse that NASSCOM needs to develop different strategies for helping myriad segments of the industry. While the recognition of the Indian industry globally is no longer the main issue, the fact that the industry is today delivering business values and business outcomes, needs to be sold in exactly the same way in which the country’s IT capability was sold during the early days in the 1990s. “For adequately catering to the diverse character that the IT industry has now acquired, NASSCOM is restructuring itself,” says Chandrashekhar. Seven councils have been formed to cater to different segments of the IT industry. As many IT companies are now working out of smaller cities and towns, NASSCOM has established regional bodies and offices to tackle local issues being faced by the industry. The branching of the IT industry is also discernible on the basis of domains like healthcare, education, smart cities, agriculture, financial inclusion, etc. Each of these domains have large chunks that come under the purview of government and areas that do not fall under the public sector. NASSCOM is making serious efforts to ensure that there is greater collaboration between government and IT companies so that there is an enabling environment for the extensive and creative use of IT in all these critical areas.

NASSCOM in Next 5 Years “IT is an area where there is the possibility of vast transformation in a FEBRUARY, 2015

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span of just 5 years,” says Chandrashekhar. “During the next few years there is going to be a huge impact of the so-called disruptive technologies.” The industry revenue stands at $118 billion as per the last year’s (2013-14) assessment, and NASSCOM estimates that it could reach $300 billion by 2020. “The question that we need to ask is whether, even as it grows, the industry is going to be more of the same or will it be something different?” Chandrasekhar is of the view that as much as half of the growth that the Indian IT industry will see by 2020 will come from newer areas. In these areas technology will certainly play an important role, but an equally significant role will be played by the development of transformational ways of doing things. “We are going to have a huge growth in ecommerce, which has a major IT EXPRESS COMPUTER

component. There will be major increase in usage of IT for healthcare, education, etc. In fact, there could be rise of companies, which will provide integrated IT-enabled healthcare services.”

It is evident that in the next few years we are going to see a huge impact of the so-called disruptive technologies.”

The rise of these verticals in the IT industry will, in Chandrashekhar’s opinion, have a huge multiplier effect on the economy. There will be gains in efficiency and transparency in many other areas, which do not seem to be directly associated with IT. So does Indian IT industry face any problem? Chandrashekhar accepts that there are many challenges that the IT industry in the country faces, but the good thing is that solutions to these challenges fall within our capabilities. “If we can work together in a collaborative manner as an industry, then undoubtedly the coming years will be the era of India,” he says. “The IT industry has grown a 1000 times during the last 20 years, so it is not difficult for it to scale itself up to an even higher level.” anoop.verma@expressindia.com

FEBRUARY, 2015

INTERVIEW RAJESH MAURYA FORTINET

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Rajesh Maurya, Country Manager - India & Saarc, Fortinet, spoke to Pankaj Maru about security related demands that are coming from enterprises and the company's business plans for the Indian market.

“Fortinet helps organisations build and grow their IT security infrastructure” Today we are seeing a shift in enterprise technology. What kind of security solutions and product demands are you seeing in the Indian market? Advanced threats need to be addressed through a comprehensive solution of high performance security platforms combined with intelligent real-time updates. A groundswell of sophisticated APT (Advanced Persistent Threats) and serial high-profile data breaches have made enterprises more security conscious. The customers are rapidly incorporating ATP technologies into their network security infrastructure. Customers want gateways that fight advanced threats, like zero-day malware and that respond to new cyber-criminal tactics, such as encrypting payloads or stolen data inside of an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) tunnel. Hence, an advanced threat prevention, sandboxing are becoming the norm in this new generation of NGFWs (next-generation firewall), with an emphasis on security effectiveness and performance. Organisations are upgrading their data centres or campus networks to support higher speeds, driven by initiatives such as public and private cloud infrastructure, Internet, SDN (Software Defined Network), virtualization and mobile platforms. In preparation for these impending infrastructure build-outs, many organisations are looking for platforms like the FortiGate3810D with more than 100 Gbps throughput. What kind of security related investments are being made or planned by Indian organisations? IT security is turning into a bottleneck for ITDMs (IT decision makers) all around the world. About 79% of Indian ITDMs admit security concerns have stopped them from implementing new business initiatives and innovations. India stands ahead in Biometrics. One of the security measures that has increasingly been gaining acceptance in the IT scene is biometric access control. It is interesting to note that India is comparatively better prepared than the rest of the world in making use of biometric technologies. 90% of Indian ITDMs claim that they are equipped with the right tools for taking advantage of biometric 20

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data innovations. So far, IT security has been a primary concern for BFSI, IT, Telecom and Public sector. The security concern has spilled over to the Retail vertical as 75% of ITDMs at retail companies are rethinking their IT security strategies in India. Other key findings from Fortinet Security Census 2014 show that about 51% of Indian ITDMs are outsourcing some elements of security functions, over 90% of Indian ITDMs reveal they have increased their budgets in IT security looking for a better financial model for procuring security solutions.

It is interesting to note that India is comparatively better prepared than the rest of the world in making use of biometric technologies. 90% of Indian ITDMs claim that they are equipped with the right tools for taking advantage of biometric data innovations.

Fortinet is strong on hardware-based security appliances and solutions, but is the company planning some specific offerings for security in enterprise mobility and mobile devices? FortiOS 5 provides more security, intelligence and control to help enterprises be better protected against today’s advanced threats and enable more secure BYOD environments. FortiOS provides networks more control to secure mobile devices and BYOD environments by identifying devices and applying specific access policies as well as security profiles. Specifically, Fortinet provides secure mobility by protecting the network, the data and the client. The mobile client itself is at risk from attack when off the home network. Fortinet secures mobile clients protecting end users while they are working from outside the office. Tell us about the strategy that Fortniet is adopting for the Indian market. We are developing an exceptional customer experience zone in the four metros to help customers evaluate our solutions. Along with it, our training centres will help customers develop an advance understanding of network security design and architecture. Fortinet has expanded its India Technical Assistance Centre by adding support engineers, professional services consultants and Premium Account Managers. Besides providing Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 phone support to Indian and Saarc customers, Fortinet’s team will oversee Professional Services and Technical Account Management, ensuring expert and timely deployment of local projects. FEBRUARY, 2015

INTERVIEW TARUN KAURA SYMANTEC INDIA

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In an effort to drive businesses forward by using IT, Symantec has come up with agile data center solutions. Tarun Kaura, Director – Technology Sales, Symantec India, talks to Pupul Dutta about the company's offerings and plans...

“IT in an enterprise is now intertwined with business strategy” What strategies should CIOs adopt to make their data centres more agile? The dynamic IT scenario and the constant demand of ‘instant gratification’ from customers are the factors pushing businesses to upgrade their systems. Mobility, Big Data, BYOD, etc., are playing a key role in enabling greater business agility. IT in an enterprise is now intertwined with the business strategy; it is not treated as a separate entity. The CIOs/CTOs are taking a more proactive role in driving the business forward. For effectively managing the data deluge and making the data centres agile,the businesses need to undertake measures for data centre transformation, data centre consolidation, greenfield data centre construction and cloud adoption. Symantec’s product portfolio gives an enterprise a holistic package that helps them strategise and make their data centres more agile. We have recently announced the latest version of NetBackup solution as well as the Storage Foundation (6.1). Most data centres have been built in a pre-cloud era.What are the best ways of upgrading these installations so that they can provide the kind of performance that is needed in the present times? It is true that most data centers were designed in a pre-cloud era. A recent study by IDC of the APAC market shows that the need for increased mobility and security is making the CIOs and IT managers go in for a complete redesign of the legacy systems. Around 29% of businesses are now moving towards a hybrid agile data center environment. While incorporating infrastructure expansion and renovation, it is essential to understand the different approaches to infrastructure buildout. This can range from building a new data centre, refreshing an existing data centre, or even moving to a cloud computing environment. The data centre ecosystem is dynamic and no two data centres are identical, they have the common objective of capturing, storing and presenting critical business information to end users in a secure and efficient manner. EXPRESS COMPUTER

What kind of solutions can be used by agile data centres to improve their security and efficiency? The need of the hour for businesses is effective delivery of the right resources to the right users, and CIOs and architects are straining to achieve that outcome. We, at Symantec, offer agile data centres that can leverage Symantec’s IT intelligence to stay backed up, and be resilient and safeguarded. The solutions that enable the agile data center are: NetBackup, which manages backups across heterogeneous environments and helps ensure that the service levels are elastic and scalable; Disaster Recovery Advisor, which complements high availability and disaster recovery solutions to help ensure that the business continuity plan will work when needed; Data Centre Security and Server & Server Advanced, which help in securing physical and virtual servers.

Instead of simply reacting to demands from the business, CIOs/CTOs are now more proactive in taking charge of the data center of the future.The Goal is to use IT to drive the business forward.

Give us an overview of the role that Symantec is playing in improving the efficiency of the data centers? For a data centre to be efficient, it is imperative that the infrastructure is agile. The solution from Symantec is the effective orchestration layer for availability, security, storage, backup, archiving and governance services. We help IT organisations deliver resilient availability to the business with their choice of hypervisor technologies, while providing consistent and automated application-centric security across the physical and virtual server footprint. This enables heterogeneous storage resource pooling and dynamic provisioning regardless of operating system, storage or interconnects users across data centers. In addition, we help automate assessment of security controls across virtual and physical infrastructure. Symantec also helps organisations move toward a service delivery model by either delivering availability, security, storage, backup, governance or archiving directly to users as a service or embedding this functionality within broader service offerings. pupul.dutta@expressindia.com

FEBRUARY, 2015

FEATURE

BUDGET

GREAT EXPECTATIONS FROM

BUDGET

The General Budget of the Narendra Modi government will be the first concrete framework of the economic agenda that the government will be pursuing during the coming years. The hope that the budget will outline a comprehensive plan for reforms and boosting economic growth has been fuelling the stock markets. Investors, businessmen and citizens are counting on the budget to be a bold step in the direction of achieving the promise that Narendra Modi made during his election campaign — “achhe din aane waale hain.” We interacted with several members of the IT community to learn about their expectations from the budget. Turn the page to learn about the great expectations that the IT sector has on its radar. BY PUPUL DUTTA AND HEENA JHINGAN

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FEBRUARY, 2015

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NIRANJAN BAL GENERAL MANAGER IT, HINDALCO INDUSTRIES

ith the central government screening a promising future in their manifestos and schemata, the 2015-16 Union Budget is expected to be a good indicator of the government’s development blueprint. While there are many areas/ sectors/ sections which require serious repairs on all fronts, one has to allow the government some relief “under section problems of plenty....inherited in legacy". The main focus areas should ideally be the common man, but emphasis needs to be there on industry reforms and sops as well. However, what remains to be seen is what will the government do for the tech industry in addition to all the above. With the oil barrel sending shivers down the global spine, and global economic slowdown hanging on the cards, the government may look at increasing the institutional investment in the information technology sector, trying to make things like a driving license, Pan card, Aadhaar Card, etc., available

online. One needs to note that there are umpteenth number of processes that can be automated and made easily available to public. This will at least open up the domestic market for IT companies. Overall, it should be a budget that gets the manufacturing sector in India shining, and that shall bail us out of the global scenario today. After all, its the manufacturing industry that has a direct impact on GDP. The coal block allotment settlement if executed in a logical manner, can provide a big relief to major business houses. While I refrain from writing anything about the process and the dust around the issue, one has to admit to the fact that business houses who have set up huge facilities in somewhat backward regions like Orissa and generated enormous employment, should be given something as a quid pro quo for their investment, and coal is an obvious item. We may also expect some sops for export houses, especially to counter the global slowdown and the ever rising

Chinese dominance. Defence is another investment area that needs to be under the microscope, especially with cross border terrorism and Pakistan’s indifferent approach after NAMO government assumed complete power.

ANJANI KUMAR CIO, SAFEXPRESS PRIVATE LIMITED

he expectations from this government is very high, especially when our PM has special focus to make India a truly digital country and IT capital of the world. We, in the technology sectors, are expecting a great transformation in terms of budget spending. People’s biggest expectation is infrastructure improvement and better tax structure for service class. IT Infrastructure – We expect huge focus on Internet bandwidth and data connectivity improvement. Probably telecom companies should be given some kind of subsidy to provide last mile connectivity in remote areas. Internet companies should be given subsidy for optical fibre improvement.

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IT Equipments - Excise duty on white goods should come down further. All the equipments needed for network and bandwidth upgrade should become cheaper. IT exports - States should be given some incentive to create new tax free export oriented zones where IT is almost non-existent. Logistics Industry - We expect better infrastructure in terms of road network which is essential to move the goods. We also expect some focus on GST which was started sometime back. There needs to be tax simplification rules for ecommerce industry, which has created chaos in some states in terms of taxes.

FEBRUARY, 2015

FEATURE

BUDGET

UMESH MEHTA

VARGHESE THOMAS

SR. VP & CIO - INDIA AT JUBILANT LIFE SCIENCES

DIRECTOR - CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS - INDIA & SAARC, BLACKBERRY

rom this budget, we expect the government to bring down the excise duty on hardware so that it becomes cheaper. The government should consider lowering the cost for all the equipments required for network and bandwidth. Secondly, the service tax should be brought down considerably. Given that most companies are now shifting to cloud-based models, levying of 12.36% service tax makes the implementation of technologies by a vendor very expensive. Lastly, corporate tax slab should be lowered. While the salaried class benefits from tax exemptions announced by the government, the business class is made to suffer. There should be provisions for

business class people too as this will further promote a healthy economic environment.

VIVEK SOOD CEO, UNINOR

he telecom sector will be keenly watching the Union Budget 2015-16 owing to the government’s focus on building a digital India. There is an expectation of reforms that can help address some of the key concerns of the industry and drive growth. Our strategic ambition of 'Internet for All' is fully aligned with Prime Minister’s Digital India. We hope that the budget will lead to relaxed norms for spectrum

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trading and sharing, M&As and availability of more spectrum. Since there is a spectrum crunch in the country, limitations with regard to spectrum trading and sharing needs to be removed in order to achieve efficient utilisation of frequency airwaves. The spectrum available for broadband over mobile networks, one witnesses a clear shortage of spectrum required to provide 'Broadband for All' in India. The government needs to make available more spectrum at a price that can make mobile services affordable for masses. Rationalisation of taxes and levies will help the sector to sustain the cost pressures. Telecom sector is impacted by multiple taxes . The tax regime needs to be re-looked so that the service provider is not burdened and growth of LTE and 3G in the country is ensured. Building an affordable device ecosystem for the masses is key to achieving the government’s broadband vision. Ensuring mobile access will be key in delivering basic citizen services.

ndia is at the cusp of change, while the country has already witnessed a change in governance, the country also awaits the much needed attention to address key sectoral concerns and initiation in vital initiatives to spur growth. The government needs to focus on critical sectors like information technology, manufacturing, healthcare, education, skill development and infrastructure. A stable tax and regulatory regime is of paramount importance to attract and retain FDI as well as grow local business investments. We wish that the upcoming budget focuses on the aforesaid sectors uniformly and formulate policies and regulatory framework which helps foster economic growth, entrepreneurship and consumer spending. Technology has already proved to be an efficient enabler of growth, thus it is imperative for us to increase our focus on Internet of Things (IoT) and deployment of M2M technologies in government services, enabling smart cities, enhancing the delivery of healthcare and education services to rural areas. Overall the need for a progressive budget that aims to instil investor confidence and propel economic growth is just not an expectation to be met, but surpassed.

FEBRUARY, 2015

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NAVEEN AGGARWAL

PARTHA IYENGAR

PARTNER-TAX (IT/ITES), KPMG-INDIA

VICE PRESIDENT & INDIA HEAD OF RESEARCH, GARTNER

etrospective amendment in definition of royalty to tax payments for use of a copyrighted article and software usage/ licensing is against internationally accepted principles of taxation, which does not consider payments for use of a copyrighted article as royalty. This has led to increase in cost and compliance burden of Indian payers and has caused significant hardships to the IT industry. It should therefore be clarified that payments for use of copyrighted software, made to nonresidents, will not be covered under the definition of 'royalty'. The rate of tax on royalty/ fees for technical services (FTS) payable to non-residents was substantially increased from 10% to 25% (excluding surcharge and cess) by Finance Act, 2013. Considering that import of technology related services and products is critical for the IT sector and taxes on such payments are usually borne by the Indian importer. Thus, the erstwhile tax rate of 10% on Royalty/FTS income of nonresidents should be restored, which will also be in line with tax rates on Royalty/ FTS rates in most tax treaties. Imposition of Minimum Alternate tax (‘MAT’) on SEZ units by Finance Act 2011 has significantly diluted the tax incentives available to SEZ units,

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which has adversely impacted competitiveness and profitability of Indian IT sector. Keeping in view the Government’s intention to revive the SEZs and make them effective instruments of economic growth, export promotion and employment generation, it is suggested that original exemption of SEZ units from MAT and DDT should be restored. The IT industry is also embroiled in Transfer pricing litigation with the Indian Revenue Authorities, resulting in huge tax demands and increased compliance costs. Disputes over classification of captive research and development (R&D centers), characterisation of services, marketing intangibles and intra-group services from transfer pricing perspective have created uncertainty. Re-visiting notified safe harbour rules as well as providing certainty on transfer pricing norms should be addressed. Section 35CCD of the Income-tax Act, 1961, allows weighted deduction of 150% on expenditure incurred on skill development by an ‘eligible company’ engaged in the business of manufacturing or production of article and providing specified services, which does not include services provided by IT/ITeS sector. Given that the IT/ ITeS industry is a skill intensive sector, it incurs substantial expenditure on skilling/up-skilling and training of employees, appropriate amendment should be made in section 35CCD to provide such weighted deduction to IT/ ITeS sector. Dual levy in the form of VAT and Service Tax on software supplied either electronically or through media has resulted in additional costs. Thus, clarity is needed on the applicability of service tax and VAT on these software transactions to reduce uncertainty and restore overall cost effectiveness of software companies, especially SMEs.

n continuation of the trend where the Indian IT industry's needs to coincide with general industry's requirements, the wish-list revolves around infrastructure revamp, ease of doing business, reforms – especially around education, labour and tax, and IP protection. The industry should not continue to hold out for ‘special sops’ and should work on integrating itself into the overall fabric of Indian industry.

SUNIL KHANNA PRESIDENT AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, EMERSON NETWORK POWER, INDIA

overnment faces the task of presenting a growth oriented budget. . The country needs to strengthen its position as a manufacturing hub on the global platform, and as such investments and measures to give manufacturing sector a push is critical. We look forward to a growth oriented budget that will accelerate the growth to more than 8%.

FEBRUARY, 2015

FEATURE

BUDGET

WHAT DOES MAIT EXPECT FROM THE BUDGET? by Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director, MAIT Extension of special additional duty (SAD) exemption to all ITA goods manufacturers

without increasing end user prices while reducing central excise valuation related disputes. Since the time of introduction of MRP based valuation in respect of IT products in 2008, the percentage of abatement has been lowered from the initially prescribed percentage of 22.5 % to 20 % with no escalation in the quantum of abatement thereafter. Pertinently, a key reason for the reduction in abatement percentage was linked to a reduction in the median rate of excise duty from 12.36 % to 10.3 %.

Issue: Union Budget 2014-15 provided the much needed relief to domestic manufacturers of personal computers and tablets by addressing the issue of inverted duty structure suffered by the industry. However, only partial relief has been provided to the IT hardware manufacturing industry in limiting the exemption from levy of SAD to inputs/components used in the manufacture of personal computers (laptops/ desktops) and tablet computers. Thus, the instant benefit of SAD exemption does not extend to other ITA goods where the issue of inverted duty structure continues and is more pronounced. Impact: The impact of the inverted duty structure is such that it effectively makes direct import by end customers or trading (i.e, import and sale) of IT hardware/ ITA goods far more advantageous in comparison to manufacturing of these products in India; thus, making Indian manufactured goods uncompetitive for the domestic market. Further, lack of clarity on the extension of the benefit of exemption up to the subcomponent level has not completely mitigated the costs being incurred by a domestic manufacturer of personal computers and tablets. Recommendations: It is suggested that the benefit of SAD exemption may be extended to all goods (including inputs, components and accessories as well as their parts and sub parts) when imported for use in the manufacture of ITA goods. This suggestion, if implemented, should 26

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Impact: While the total post manufacturing cost typically accounts for over 40 % of the sale price, the abatement percentage prescribed at 20 % is significantly lower than the costs incurred. The overall industry expectation was that, with the increase in rate of excise duties and VAT, the percentage of abatement would correspondingly increase. However, the percentage of abatement prescribed has effectively reduced, resulting in increase in cost at the hands of end customers.

provide the necessary impetus to domestic hardware manufacturers by eliminating additional tax / duty costs incurred on account of an inverted duty structure. Enhancement of abatement under maximum retail price (MRP) based excise valuation Issue : MRP based valuation was prescribed under central excise law with the intent to ensure revenue neutrality

Recommendations: The rate of abatement on all IT products should be increased from 20% to 40% under Notification No 49/2008 – CE (NT) which prescribes the rate of abatement for products under MRP based excise valuation. Deemed export benefits’ in respect of information technology agreement (‘ITA’) goods Issue: ITA bound goods (including their components when imported for use in manufacture of ITA goods) are exempted from the levy of basic customs duty (BCD) when imported into India FEBRUARY, 2015

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A domestic manufacturer of ITA goods shall be liable to pay excise duty RAT 10.30 % on the clearance of the manufactured goods to customers in India. In addition to the above, there is a levy of VAT/CST on the domestic sale of goods manufactured in India. However, despite the numerous efforts of the Central Government, the IT hardware has failed to grow in India. Recommendations: It is recommend that ‘deemed exports’ status be provided to ITA bound goods in order to improve domestic hardware manufacture industry. Deemed export status if granted shall ensure zero rating of the supply of manufactured finished goods from excise duty levy perspective (excise duty exemption/ refund); and duty benefits (such as exemption / refund/ drawback) on inputs, components capital goods procured for use in the manufacture of such ITA goods. Such duty benefit shall effectively reduce the tax burden on ITA goods and potentially encourage domestic manufacturing of the same.

Speedy disposal of Special Valuation Branch (SVB) cases Issue: Under the present provisions contained in the Customs Act, 1961 while there are procedures prescribed in respect of importing items/ goods from related parties located abroad; such procedures are often time consuming and uncertainties prevail over the time frame for assessment and passing of orders by the SVB authorities. Impact: Especially delays in renewing the SVB order even when where there is no change in fact pattern has been causing severe hardship to companies delaying imports and enhancing transaction costs. Further, insistence on SVB even where the goods attract nil rate of basic customs duty / are subject to MRP based CVD levy (such as majority of ITA goods) is causing severe hardship to the business. Recommendation: In view of the above, it is recommended that a definitive time EXPRESS COMPUTER

frame should be provided in the Customs Act for issuance of an SVB valuation order. While in certain cases, due to the complexity of the matter involved, it may be difficult to issue an order within the time prescribed, suitable guidelines can be placed such as obtaining approval from the higher authorities (Commissioner/ Chief Commissioner) for taking additional time to dispose the application in such cases. This would ensure that there would are no laches on part of the department/ field level officers in disposing off the SVB references. Specifically a short time-frame ought to be fixed for issuance of renewal orders with a shorter and well defined time-frame for renewal of SVB orders where there is no change in fact pattern. Further, SVB proceedings should be relaxed or at least fast tracked with respect to goods that attract nil basic customs duty and MRP based CVD assessment.

Prescription of higher rate of depreciation Issue: We wish to highlight that in the absence of definition of the term ‘computer and computer peripherals’, significant number of ITA products do not enjoy the accelerated rate of depreciation. It is important to note that all ITA products have approximately the same life cycle as ‘computers and computer peripherals’. Impact: The rate of depreciation prescribed in respect of capital goods (other than computer and computer peripherals) is very low. For these products (under the prescribed depreciation for capital goods) to achieve full depreciation, it takes more than five years. This result in a host of IT products whose effective life is exhausted within a few years (on par with computers and computer peripherals) being considered for lower depreciation and consequently for higher tax reversals / payment at the stage of their de-bonding / disposal thereby enhancing costs incurred by businesses.

Recommendation: In view of the above issue, it is recommended that a definition of the term ‘computer and computer peripherals’ be inserted in the CENVAT Rules to include all ITA bound products inter alia specifically including network and testing equipments. This amendment would ensure that all ITA bound products enjoy an accelerated depreciation rate in comparison to the depreciation rate prescribed in respect of capital goods.

Introduction of Goods and Service Tax (GST) legislation may be expedited Issue: The Government of India has been contemplating introduction of GST for some time now, as expected, the GST regime will revamp the entire indirect taxes in India and would require significant changes to be undertaken by the companies from financial, infrastructure perspective. However, without any substantial progress being made on this front by the Government, apprehending any semblance of the GST regime is far-fetched. Given the significant impact of GST on the businesses and target for interdiction of GST being April 2016, it is imperative for the Government to engage vigorously with the industry. Impact: Lack of vigor introduction of GST on part of the Government and absence of dialogue with the industry may hamper the successful implementation of GST Recommendation: It is recommended that Central Government should come out with the draft GST legislation at the earliest for the purpose of understanding, discussions and eliciting the views of the business and trade. Business community should be provided sufficient time to understand and study the legislation and its implications on the business and trade and to contribute with the views and suggestions. The views and suggestions made by the business and trade community can thus be suitably accommodated, clarified, taken into account at the time of introduction of formal GST legislation. FEBRUARY, 2015

FEATURE

BUDGET

Âť www.expresscomputeronline.com

WHAT DOES NASSCOM EXPECT FROM THE BUDGET? R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM

he Government has been progressive and has committed to adopt technology for governance. With enabling policies and speedy implementation, we can surely realise the Digital India vision. The success of the flagship initiatives of the government Digital India and Make in India not only offer tremendous opportunities for the innovation driven technology Industry, but its success also hinges on the sustainability and continued growth of the technology driven sector. Hence, factors that can potentially restrict growth and innovation needs to be addressed. We recommend that the government address regulatory and tax challenges for technology start-ups and SMEs, like difficulties in access to funding for low asset based firms, investor difficulties related to regulations and taxations discouraging investors, ambiguous Software product taxation and implementation issues adding to burden. It should also offer incentives for technology start-ups and SMEs. It should extend provisions on deduction for employment and skill development (Section 80JJAA), R&D credits, there should be new provisions like offsetting manpower training cost, deferred tax credits for start-ups. Interest rates on penalty for service tax, for amount under litigation, should be rationalised. Rates introduced in the last budget are punitive at 30%. Nasscom acknowledges that companies who have collected service tax but not paid to the Government should be penalised and hence a 30% interest rate maybe applicable to such defaulters. For others, where there is a dispute over legal interpretation on applicability of service tax, a nominal rate of interest maybe notified. 28

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To encourage growth of e-commerce, taxation on digital transactions should be in the least, at par with the physical world, if not reduced to facilitate adoption and migration to technology enabled platforms. This will help Government leverage the inherent transparency and traceability of online transactions. We also have certain suggestions towards Make in India initiative as well. In recognition of the transformative impact of IT, extend incentives to the Indian industry for adoption and implementation of IT tools for efficiency enhancement, ensuring sustainability and global competitiveness for the success of the Make in India programme. The government could revoke

exclusion of expenses towards software tools for R&D from weighted deduction under the DSIR guidelines to encourage adoption of advanced R&D. Policy revisions/ clarifications are required for expansion of the Industry. In case of Exportsâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; Foreign Tax Credit policy, drawback scheme for services, carry backward of business losses. For the domestic business the government must align royalty definition with international practices, clarify POPS rules, revisit amendments made in CENVAT rules, restore lower TDS rates on Fees for Technical Services, clarify Transfer pricing related issues some of which were addressed in the last budget,, but details are awaited. FEBRUARY, 2015

INTERVIEW NEERAJ SHAABI TIBCO SOFTWARE

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Neeraj Shaabi, Managing Director & Regional Vice President – Asia, TIBCO Software, talks about the business opportunity in Indian market and the company's strategy to grow here. In conversation with Heena Jhingan

“We clearly have an edge over the competitors in scale, complexity and speed” Tell us about the work that TIBCO is doing in India. TIBCO has been serving customers in India for almost 10 years. We engage with organisations where we feel there is sufficient scale and complexity for our technology to come in and solve some really tough problems - banks, telecommunication providers, transportation, etc. Reliance Communications was one of our first success stories in India. For them we solved the complex problem of dealing with customer churn and improving revenue earning from the prepaid subscriber business. Companies are scaling both vertically (adding customers and revenue) as well as horizontally (by acquisitions at home and abroad). When consumers have become more discerning, the enrichment of consumer experience is the key to success. We are in a position to provide lot of values in these areas. Also, with a pro-business government in place, we are bullish about our ability to develop new solutions to meet the challenging needs of the businesses in the country. Business Intelligence is now being married to every vertical and is getting very innovative. What innovations does TIBCO bring to the table in this space? The traditional business intelligence market place is facing severe challenge today. Almost every industry player is talking about big data, but you really have to understand this at a deeper level and see how it gets manifested in the form of a real strategy for the company. We think out of the three dimensions of Big Data— volume, variety and velocity. It is velocity that is most interesting. Volume and variety are inevitable and there is little you can do about them other than ensuring robust ways to store, curate and access the data. If you can see, capture, understand and analyse data while things are happening, it has a far greater impact to your overall responsiveness than if you do this after the fact. What is your view of India as a cloud market? India is a rapidly emerging market for cloud. Some people tell me it is behind the West. In reality, the issues and challenges here with respect to an accelerated adoption for cloud are EXPRESS COMPUTER

not really that different compared to anywhere else. Most of the questions are around regulatory, data privacy, resilience, and related issues. Entire world is grappling with these issues. We can add some unique value in each of the areas we play in. For example, integration in the cloud is something we do quite uniquely - in the new enterprise context, you will inevitably end up with multiple applications being consumed as a service in the cloud - so just like traditional IT required an ESB or SOA reference architecture, how are you going to figure out integration across these providers in the cloud. What are the areas that TIBCO’s cloud solution can tap in India? We provide the industry’s best integration to some of the top cloud enterprise platforms - such as Salesforce and others. We also offer hybrid capabilities so that businesses can at will determine which parts of their enterprise infrastructure should be a service, and which should be on assets on premises. I believe, we offer industry’s strongest analytics capabilities - with TIBCO Spotfire - as a cloud service. The latest additions to our Spotfire product line have introduced some innovative capabilities such as analytics recommendation engine to simplify the complex process of data aggregation, visualisation and analysis.

Reliance Communications was one of our first success stories in India. For them we solved the complex problem of dealing with customer churn and improving revenue earning from the prepaid subscriber business.

Government is an upcoming vertical.What are your plans to get business from this segment in India? We work selectively with governments, and in some well defined sectors. For example in the US, we help the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies with their cyber security needs. Our Fast Data platform helps organisations like Interpol to quickly detect patterns in anomalies as part of their security and surveillance initiatives. In some countries like Singapore, we help the financial institutions of government, such as the tax office, central banks etc. to automate their processes. We have much the same opportunities in India. As a case in point, we do work for the Indian Railways and that work embodies some of the aforesaid differentiators— scale, complexity and speed. heena.jhingan@expressindia.com

FEBRUARY, 2015

CASE STUDY

ISKCON

ISKCON TEMPLE’S T

TRYSTWITH IT

The Bangalore-based Sri Radha Krishna Temple right-sized its IT service desk and got a better view of its servers and network through the deployment of solutions from ManageEngine. BY HEENA JHINGAN 30

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he Bangalore based Sri Radha Krishna Temple, one of the largest ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness ) temples in the world, is built on sprawling ground and has impressive Information Technology assets. According to Ayyappa Dasika, Project Manager – IT, at the Bangalore centre, the temple has a data center within it's complex that hosts around 36 servers. Their storage requirement is met by a Unified storage box, a NAS box and a tape drive for archival and back up. The network is spread over four acres of land and has about 1000 endpoints with 13 zones and 36 sub-zones. According to Dasika this is a Cisco network over fibre backbone. They also have about 400 computers at the complex, Dasika informs. Like any IT environment, ISKCON's FEBRUARY, 2015

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Bangalore centre needed to be monitored for keeping track of network availability, responsiveness and performance. But for achieving this objective they did not have the right solutions and tools till about two years ago. The centre also needed an efficient service help desk solution to handle their IT service tickets. Then there was the requirement for an effective patch manager who could help them manage the various software upgrades in a secure and efficient manner. “After evaluating various solutions available in the market, we shortlisted offerings from Sapphire and ManageEngine. Initially we decided to use trial versions of solutions from both these companies to make ourselves sure about what we were buying,” Dasika says.

Drilling down the feature set Finally the centre decided to use three solutions from ManageEngine — DesktopCentral for Desktop and Mobile Device Management for the patch management; ServiceDesk Plus Enterprise Edition, a help desk software; OpManager for Server and Networking Monitoring. Dasika says that as they were using Windows Severs 2012 edition and Windows machines, the systems needed to be updated. Initially they were able to take care of only Windows patch upgrades and not the other third party tools. So they decided to deploy DesktopCentral for Desktop & Mobile Device Management to deal with this challenge. Sridhar Iyengar, Vice President Product Management, ManageEngine, explains that Desktop Central is an integrated desktop and mobile device management software. “It automates regular desktop management routines like installing patches, distributing software, managing IT assets, managing software licenses, monitoring software usage statistics, managing USB device usage and taking control of remote desktops, and more,” he says. The centre, however, at present, is not using the solution for mobile devices. He says that the solution has helped them set up right usage policies. For instance, they do not allow the users to download updates for third party tools on EXPRESS COMPUTER

their own and also manage the users' USB access points.

Benefits of the new system In the past, the centre was using a traditional way of service reporting. A web-based self-service portal not only helps in effectively dealing with service requirements, it also helps by providing a complete picture of the problem and the status of the issue. All this in a single console. Dasika points out that after using the ServiceDesk Plus solution, they realised that they had a bigger IT service team than they needed. They reduced the headcount of service engineers from five to three and at the same time they handled calls more effectively. “Our service desk now has a greater clarity on call logs and there are no chances of a ticket being repeated or missed,” he adds To monitor and manage its network, server and virtual machines, the centre deployed the ManageEngine OpManager. Due to synergy between the three solutions, Dasika, says the processes have become very smooth. In an event of any threat either on the network, server or desktop side, the OpManager is capable of raising alert and at the same time it logs in a service ticket at the help desk. “I believe the decision to deploy ManageEngine has worked to our advantage. ManageEngine is more relevant to our needs and at least 40% more cost effective. The solutions do not require different database connectivity like MySQL,” says Dasika

We found ManageEngine to be relevant to our needs and 40% more cost effective.The solutions do not require different database connectivity. Ayyappa Dasika, Project Manager – IT, ISKCON-Bangalore

The way ahead Content with the existing ManageEngine solutions, the temple has now started using the trial version of ManageEngine's ADManager Plus, which is Windows Active Directory Management and Reporting Solution that helps AD Administrators and desk technicians with their daily activities. “We are still trying the solution, so far, it is working well. I plan to deploy the solution in the next financial year,” Dasika concluded. heena.jhingan@expressindia.com

The solution has helped us set up right usage policies. Sridhar Iyengar, Vice President - Product Management,ManageEngine

FEBRUARY, 2015

INTERVIEW DR GOVIND CEO, NATIONAL INTERNET EXCHANGE OF INDIA (NIXI)

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FEBRUARY, 2015

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INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES IN INDIAN LANGUAGES “Language should not be a barrier to anyone who wants to access the Internet for availing of any service or finding useful information or even entertainment. Therefore we have taken this initiative of having domain names in Devanagari script as a first step towards making the multilingual Internet covering all the 22 constitutional languages of the country,” says Dr Govind, CEO, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)

What are the operations that National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is currently managing in India? The NIXI is the neutral meeting point of the ISPs in India. Its main purpose is to facilitate exchange of domestic Internet traffic between the peering ISP members. This enables more efficient use of international bandwidth, saving foreign exchange. It also improves the quality of services for the customers of member ISPs, by avoiding multiple international hops and thus reducing latency. Also, the government of India has authorised NIXI to operate and manage .IN Registry, since January 2005. Now .IN domain names are available to anyone on first-come- firstserved basis. The Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN), a division of NIXI, provides allocation and registration services of IP addresses and AS numbers, and con- tributes to the community by providing Internetrelated information as a non-profit, affiliation-based organisation. As you just said, the Government of India has authorised NIXI as the .IN registry, so what steps is NIXI taking to ensure the safety of .IN registry? IN domain is one of the world’s most protected top level domains (TLD). Access to .IN domains is performed via a highly redundant, global, Anycast DNS network, which protects against massive distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. The IN registry is secured behind a 5 layer security ring with all critical components fully redundant EXPRESS COMPUTER

hardware software and service provision including a completely functional and tested disaster recovery facility. The .IN registry is also one of the few TLDs in the world to have deployed the domain name system security extensions (DNSSEC) technology which guarantees protection to users who click on a web site. DNSSEC ensure that they cannot be hijacked maliciously. This is in fact the first TLD in South Asia to deploy such a high level of cryptographic technology for security at the domain level. IN registry is also constantly monitored for threats and active measures are taken to mitigate abuse in coordination with CERT IN. In addition to this, there are additional scans and audits performed to ensure there are no known vulnerabilities. NIXI has recently launched the Dot Bharat domain. What are the main advantages of this initiative? The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) have collaborated to launch Dot Bharat domain in Devanagari script on 27th

More than 5000 domain names in Hindi have already been booked.

August 2014. Currently this covers eight languages — Hindi, Dogri, Maithili, Bodo, Marathi, Konkani, Nepali and Sindhi. Subsequently Dot Bharat was launched in Bangla, Manipuri and Gujarati scripts on 25th of December,2015-Good Governance Day We will soon be launching Dot Bharat in Urdu, Tamil and Telugu languages, this will be followed by other Indian languages like Malayalam, Kannada, Odiya, Assamese, Kashmiri, etc. The Dot Bharat initiative was taken up for our non-English speaking people. Currently one can find content in various languages online, but the URLs or web addresses are in English. With this rollout, people can now type the URL in local languages. This will help people in the villages and remote places to access the Internet in local languages. It will help bridge the digital divide by encouraging generation of local content. Language should not be a barrier to anyone who wants to access the Internet for availing of any service or finding useful information or even entertainment. Hence we have taken this initiative of having domain names in Devanagari script in many Indian languages. Are there any specific steps being taken to ensure that the content of the websites also become available in local languages? It is understood that just having the URLs in local languages is not enough, the real benefit to the people will come only when the content also becomes available in local languages. In order to ensure that this happens NIXI, along FEBRUARY, 2015

INTERVIEW

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DR GOVIND CEO, NATIONAL INTERNET EXCHANGE OF INDIA (NIXI)

IDN Domain Name Dot Bharat was launched at India International Center, Max Muller Marg,New Delhi on 27th August,2014 by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon'ble Minister of Communications & IT with the Ministry of Communications & IT, has initiated a dialogue with the popular websites like IRCTC, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Yatra, Amazon and many others. We are working with C-DAC, which is the premier government organisation working for the development of several tools and technologies for dealing with different aspects of languages. The technologies that C-DAC has developed can be used to generate vernacular language content on Indian websites. We are keen to ensure that the content becomes available in local languages on these popular websites. And I am optimistic that in near future the citizens who do not know English will also be able to get their work done by accessing content available in local languages on the Internet. Is the INRegistry also responsible for the Dot Bharat domain? In India, the INRegistry is responsible for registering IDN (Internationalised Domain Names) in Indian Languages. IDNs are domain names represented in local language characters. Such domain names could contain letters or characters from non-ASCII scripts. Dot Bharat is an example of an IDN. The development of IDN is important because a very small proportion of the Indian population is English literate. The proliferation of IDN will definitely lead to increase in the penetration of the Internet through the 34

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1. Devanagari IDN Domain name â&#x20AC;˘

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.Bharat in Urdu

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use of local languages and help penetrate local content. What kind of response is the Dot Bharat domain receiving from the people?

We are having very good response. More than 5000 domain names in Hindi have already been booked. I am hopeful that we will also see lot of interest in local language domain names. FEBRUARY, 2015

INTERVIEW VIPIN SAWHNEY MHL

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MHL, a high-definition mobile link, allows consumers to connect their mobile devices to larger displays. Vipin Sawhney, India Country Manager, Silicon Image, talks to Pupul Dutta about the future of this technology and how it will impact the smartphone industry.

Connectivity Between Mobiles and Consumer Electronics What is the significance of MHL (Mobile HighDefinition Link)? How is this technology expected to change the mobile experience? MHL technology allows you to connect your smartphone, tablet, and other mobile devices to TVs, monitors, projectors, in-dash automotive displays, audio-video receivers (AVRs) and the rapidly expanding ecosystem of other products. Developed by Silicon Image, which is a member of the MHL Consortium (along with Nokia, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba), MHL technology features a single cable, 5-pin digital interface that can transmit 4K (UHD) video and enhanced surround audio while simultaneously providing power to the mobile device. MHL can also deliver audio, video, data, and power over a single connector. The MHL specification enable companies to leverage popular connectors already present on many mobile devices and displays, including microUSB and HDMI Type A, in addition to proprietary connectors. The technology is optimised for mobile and sends uncompressed, Ultra High-Definition (UHD) video and up to 8 channels of surround sound audio from an MHL smartphone or tablet to any TV, monitor or display, while also charging the device. With MHL, smartphones and tablets can be transformed into game consoles, home entertainment systems, PCs and more. How many devices are coming pre-installed with this technology? Are you in talks with OEMs for promotion of this technology? The technology has been consistently growing with more than 650 million devices shipped in three short years. This is faster growth than HDMI in that same timeframe. Leading consumer electronics and mobile device companies continue to release exciting MHLenabled products that showcase the power of MHL technology, which brings UHD multimedia content from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to TVs and monitors. The global MHL ecosystem includes adapters, automotive accessories, A/V receivers, Blu-ray Disc players, cables, DTVs, monitors, EXPRESS COMPUTER

projectors, smartphones, streaming media sticks, tablets and more. The beauty of an open standard is that it spurs innovation. More MHL products are being released that push the boundaries of where we thought the technology could go, helping to drive MHL’s continued growth. Specific to India, there are phones and tablets from HTC, Huawei, Samsung, Sony and ZTE that come pre-installed with the MHL technology. There are also a variety of TVs from LG, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba. In what ways will MHL impact other technologies that are currently in the market? Do you think it can emerge as the next game-changer? When MHL released its first specification, it started with a simple idea of connecting a phone to a TV. This has now evolved into an advanced world of connectivity. MHL’s product ecosystem has rapidly grown and the use cases continue to expand, making MHL the world’s most widely adopted mobile TV-out standard and the defacto system for connectivity between mobiles and consumer electronics products. MHL has achieved broader adoption in countries like India where smartphone shipments are rapidly accelerating. The ability to connect a smartphone or tablet to the big screen to display photos and videos, play games or use productivity applications is a compelling value proposition, which continues to expand the adoption of MHL in emerging markets. I do believe that MHL is a game changing technology with multiple applications that can benefit consumers.

MHL is a game changing technology with multiple applications that can benefit consumers

How do you see the technology evolving in over a period of next two years? We can’t provide any forward looking statements for MHL technology, but the consortium is made up of companies that are leaders in the mobile and consumer electronic space. The goal of each specification is to deliver a set of features that enable companies to stay ahead of the industry curve, forecasting the future needs of consumers. FEBRUARY, 2015

INTERVIEW S NARSING RAO PRINCIPAL SECRETARY, CHIEF MINISTER, TELANGANA

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“TELANGANA IS COMMITTED TO DEVELOPMENT OF IT INDUSTRY” “The new infrastructure development that is now taking place in Hyderabad will make the city even more attractive for the IT companies,” says S Narsing Rao, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Telangana. For improving the economy of the state, what are the key steps that the government of Telangana is taking? Improvement of economy is only possible when there is adequate electricity supply for the industry and the people. So the key challenge before us is to further enhance the power generation and distribution systems. Today we are supplying around 5800 megawatt on an average basis, and there is a shortfall of about 1000 megawatt as of now. The growth in demand for power is in the range of 800 to 1000 megawatt per annum. We need to bridge this gap in the current supply of power and the average demand. We also need to enhance capacity so that we are in a position to meet the year on year increase in demand for power. Hence the government of Telangana has laid down the plans for adding at least 10000 megawatts during the next five years time. Such capacity addition will lead to Telangana becoming a power surplus state. What steps are being taken to improve the urban infrastructure of Hyderabad? Improvement of the urban infrastructure of Hyderabad is a key priority for our government. It is a major challenge for us, because ultimately it is the well developed urban areas that will give flip to the overall growth in the economy of the state. Many initiatives are being taken by the Government of Telangana to improve the infrastructure of the city. The completion of the outer ring road is a big achievement, and now we are concentrating on the development of various radial roads. Plans are being developed to implement the master plan beyond the GHMC limits. This will lead to growth in investments. EXPRESS COMPUTER

Recently the government of Telangana unveiled its industrial policy.What kind of response are you getting from investors? Our industrial policy is very attractive for investors who want to set up new industries in the state. In the policy the government of Telangana has identified 14 thrust areas; we have plans to develop six industrial corridors and common infrastructure for various industries among other things. The policy framework also lists sector-specific incentives and steps for the development of hassle-free and transparent environment for the units to set-up and operate. It is the top priority of this government to encourage development of industries in the state. In particular, we are expecting a big push from the manufacturing sector. The three key pillars for developing the state’s economy are reliable power supply, world class urban infrastructure, and industrialisation. Hyderabad is already well known for its IT industry.What steps are being taken to

The three key pillars for developing the state’s economy are reliable power supply,world class urban infrastructure,and industrialisation.

ensure that the IT industry continues to grow in Telangana? Telangana is committed to development of IT industry. As a stand alone city, Hyderabad is the second biggest revenue generator for the IT sector in India after Bangalore. The high growth that we see in the IT sector is primarily through export oriented services that the industry is providing. The IT industry is completely market driven. They take their investment decisions on the basis of factors like infrastructure, safety, availability of quality skilled manpower, cost of living, connectivity, etc. The new infrastructure development that is now taking place in Hyderabad will make the city even more attractive for the IT companies. The eco-system for IT companies will become even better, with the improvement in infrastructure. Along with IT, electronics manufacturing is also a priority for us. The infrastructure for electronics manufacturing is already available. Two manufacturing zones already exist in Telangana, these have full infrastructure—roads, electricity, water supply, etc. What steps are being taken to encourage development of eGovernance in Telangana? In Telangana, there already exists a deep penetration of eGovernance applications in various areas. The eGovernance systems are also seeing good response from the citizens of the state. Many citizens use their own online systems or the common service centres to avail various government services. The policies and programmes of government of Telangana are oriented in the direction of giving more impetus to eGovernance in the state. FEBRUARY, 2015

CASE STUDY

ACCELYA KALE

ORACLE HELPS ACCELYA KALE SPEED UPDATA PROCESSING BYUPTO

2.5X

ccelya Kale Solutions, part of the Accelya Group, is a leading provider of financial solutions to the airline and travel industry. The company is a known brand when it comes to helping airlines streamline their financial processes and thereby gain new insights into the overall performance of their business. With more than 25 years’ of experience and 200 clients in the industry, the expertise of Accelya Kale 38

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Solutions spans into—revenue accounting; audit and revenue recovery and protection; credit card management; miscellaneous billing; financial, administrative processes, decision support and analytics. The company is a strategic partner to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and has a presence in nine countries. Of late, airlines have moved from fullservice ticketing, wherein one ticket covers everything, to a carte service,

which allows passengers to select their seats, purchase extra luggage allowances, prebook meals, and reserve entertainment to drive more revenue. As a consequence of this initiative lot of additional revenue is getting generated, which airlines are required to process and account for. This in turn has put a great amount of load on revenue accounting systems, particularly during seasonal peak periods, such as Christmas and school holidays. FEBRUARY, 2015

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Moreover, the widespread adoption of e-ticketing over the past decade has facilitated automation of upstream data collection, enabling airlines to report revenue much faster and more accurately. Airline companies now require their revenue accounting systems to process revenue on a daily basis, whereas earlier they were doing it on a weekly or even monthly basis. This shift has placed tremendous pressure on revenue accounting systems to process data and churn out reports in as little as 8 to 10 hours. Now Accelya Kale wanted a solution that would help it handling the tasks of data processing and reports management in a fast and error free manner.

The challenge Most airlines today are struggling with their legacy IT architectures, which in some cases is almost 30 years old. Ever since the trend of e-ticketing picked up, airline companies wanted to gather and process revenue data as soon as the plane’s wheels leave the ground. They needed a fast, reliable, scalable, and costeffective solution to maximise their productivity and increase competitiveness. Accelya Kale, adopted Oracle’s Exadata to provide its airline customers a platform that accelerated transaction throughput by up to 2.5x and enabled airlines, some of which carry more than 35 million passengers per year to rapidly process daily data, such as flight schedules, flights completed and passenger loads by sector.

Options leading to Oracle Talking about the technology considerations that the company went through before zeroing on Oracle, Prameet Savla, Vice President, Technology, Accelya Kale says, “There were several options that were considered to meet the demanding need of our application environment, which ranged from upgrading the server infrastructure utilising latest generation of processors and adding cache cards in the storage to deploying Solid State Disk EXPRESS COMPUTER

for faster data access.” “We chose Oracle Exadata over other vendors because of its highest transaction throughput. The seamless migration with our existing Oracle Database meant that we had to do minimal changes to our airline passenger revenue accounting platform. Simply put, Oracle Exadata gave us maximum throughput and maximum value for our technology investment,” he adds. Basically, Accelya adopted Oracle Exadata Database Machine for its comprehensive passenger revenue accounting platform. “We deployed two, quarter-rack Oracle Exadata Database Machines, one as the primary system and the second as a redundant system in the event of failure. The deployment ensured high system availability and security for business-critical revenue data and enabled 100% disaster recovery,” explains Savla. As an Oracle Independent Software Vendor, Accelya also leveraged Oracle’s hosting model, which allowed the company to run their application on Oracle Exadata as part of a multi-tenancy hosting arrangement. Accelya hosts Exadata out of its data centres in Mumbai and Pune.

Implementation time and benefits The time to implement Exadata took around two months, which included installation of the hardware at site, configuration of the boxes, stabilising of the environment and eventually migration and dry run of the application environment. “We were able to successfully cut over our first customer by the end of second month on the Exadata

environment,” beams a happy Savla. Earlier, the airlines’ traditional systems were scaled to handle a daily average load with a 20% to 30% buffer, but peak loads could go as high as 200% above the daily average, often resulting in backlogs that took days, or even weeks, to catch up. But with Exadata’s unrivalled processing power, companies could accelerate throughput by up to 2.5x for more than 100 million annual revenue transactions. Also, managing peak data loads as high as 200% above the daily average, while reducing the time spent on database maintenance by nearly 40% was like a cakewalk for Accelya. “The speed has been a real game changer, for us and our customers, with respect to competition,” he says. By integrating seamlessly with airlines’ enterprise resource planning systems and leveraging Oracle Exadata’s high availability, we are able to provide a platform that minimises processing errors for airlines’ revenue reports and achieve 99% revenue forecast accuracy. It significantly enhanced accounting controls and airlines’ abilities to comply with industry regulations.

Moving on Accelya Kale conducted multiple proofof-concept tests on Oracle Exadata to ensure that its airline passenger revenue accounting platform could leverage Oracle Exadata’s advanced features. The company completed the deployment in approximately 10 months on time and within budget. The company engaged Mumbai-based Oracle partner, Softcell Technologies, to conduct the proof-of-concept tests. Softcell Technologies provided the test facility, and its engineers assisted Accelya Kale in quickly resolving any issues that arose during testing. The scalability feature helped Accelya’s customers to effectively manage seasonal peak loads during holidays and festivals. Post this implementation, airlines can now make quicker decisions on competitive pricing structures, resource allocations, and resource sharing. pupul.dutta@expressindia.com

FEBRUARY, 2015

COLUMN LALIT POPLI ICICI PRUDENTIAL

INFORMATION SECURITY– FAD OR NEED OFTHE HOUR? S In the rising threat scenario, it has become imperative to follow some basic rules in order to protect oneself from cyber attacks.

In today’s technological advancement,the more we are solving issues and making life simpler,the more we are opening up to unethical data collection techniques 40

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ome days ago, I was attending a workshop on Cyber Crime Investigations and Digital Forensics, when someone in the group narrated a recent practice which had us in splits at that point of time. The story goes as follows: An engagement ceremony that I attended sometime back, the bride’s parents gifted the bridegroom an expensive phone which the bridegroom promptly started using. However, the bride’s parents had pre-installed an app that recorded all conversations, messages posted on WhatsApp and SMS received and sent. All three items would then be emailed to a designated email id (already configured in the app) at regular intervals. To make detection difficult this app was well hidden in the system directory. Within a short span of time the entire details were available to the bride’s parents and they could profile their future son-in-law with many personal details, which but for this app they would never have. Needless to add the marriage did not go through and if the experience of the person who narrated this story is to be believed then this practice is very much used. Irrespective of the outcome of the exercise, one thing this example clearly brings out is that as an individual your data is at risk. Also from the above example and many other common cases like phishing etc., clearly illustrates that we should look at Information Security in much larger framework rather than looking at it narrowly from only corporate lens. As the boundary between personal and official gets blurred, so is the need of self-driven information security needs which covers both the personal as well as corporate aspect. In the following paragraphs we would be looking at small things which together can make a big difference in protecting data (corporate

or personal) which should become a habit rather than something that needs to be looked into specifically. Following key security measures enforced through organisation and at an individual level for personal items are a bare minimum that should be taken to protect the data of an individual and of the organisation.

❑ Attitude and Approach towards Information Security Our approach and attitude towards information security is the bedrock on which the success or failure of our information security depends upon. If we believe that it cannot happen to me, then we are living in a fool’s paradise. In today’s technological advancement, the more we are solving issues and making life simpler, the more we are opening up to unethical data collection techniques. One has to be aware of the same, before one can take the next steps. Hence, it is very important not to go back to cavemen days and cut yourself of totally but use the technology while being aware of the risks you are taking and trying to mitigate the same. ❑

Mobile Security Mobile phones have seen rapid technological advancement and has worked harder to bring down the prices resulting in faster adoption of mobile phone among a huge section of the population. Today’s mobile phone does much more than simple calling and short messaging functions, it is your wallet, it is your guide, it is your access to all the data that is out there on the web etc. Some must haves for mobile security are: ◗ Encryption Software ◗ Password Protection Software with a must have lock-out period after certain time of no activity. FEBRUARY, 2015

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◗ Remote Wiping Enabled. This will help to safe guard your data in case your phone is stolen or lost. ❑

Laptop Security Because of their portable nature, laptops are at a higher risk of being lost or stolen than average desktops. It is therefore important that we take some extra steps to protect our data. Encrypt your hard disk. Never leave your laptop in the car, if necessary lock it in the trunk.

❑

Application Security When we start using a particular application, we assume it is secure in all aspects. However this may not necessarily be the case. The application developers try to ensure that the application has maximum security but it is quite possible that by oversight some loopholes are not plugged. Hence it is important that you use application from known sources only.

❑

Physical Access While planning for information security we forget the importance of monitoring the physical access. Do not keep your laptop/mobile phones/external device etc. in the open and in easy access to others. Keep it locked. If you need to share your mobile or laptop, please create a separate profile for guests and ensure you give limited access to them.

❑

External Media Most of us need to take a back-up on external media or devices like USB drive, external hard disk etc. It is also an easy way to transfer information at individual level. Most of the corporates have implemented the policy of blocking the computer to read from these external media without permission but on q personal level we allow the same very casually. Also many of us carry such devices wherever we go. Due to above points we must be very careful on how we use the external media.

❑

Social Media Security With increasing use of social media

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While planning for information security we forget the importance of monitoring the physical access. platforms like Facebook, twitter, YouTube etc. we have to realise that there is plethora of information about us on the platform without us even knowing about the same. Hence, as a rule one should not post the following items on your social media for any reason: ◗ Your mother’s maiden name. ◗ Your residential or office address ◗ Your contact nos. ◗ Your email id (difficult and hence create a separate email id for social media purpose) ◗ Your child’s name ◗ Photographs of your house or building ◗ Your vacation plan or photos of your vacation while you are still travelling. ◗ Inappropriate photo’s (you never know when you can get into trouble) Finally to sum it up, follow these few of

the below mentioned steps to keep your data safe: ◗ Use Legal Software (Question is not “do you use it?” it is “which do you use it?” as they give you legal protection in case of security / data breach.) ◗ Strong Password: Always have strong password which is combination of words, special characters and numbers. ◗ Put up a strong Firewall and revisiting point no. 1 ◗ Have an Antivirus, Anti-malware, Antispam, Anti-spyware protection and revisiting point no. 1. ◗ Update your software regularly. ◗ Back-up regularly. ◗ Monitor your system including mobile data plan usage. ◗ Be careful with your email, messengers, social media platforms and while surfing the web ❑

Educate yourself Your data has value to others even if you do not think so and it will be used against you by unscrupulous people. Keep yourself and your data safe at all cost.

Lalit Popli, Head – IT, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company (AMC)

FEBRUARY, 2015

INTERVIEW

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MUKTESH K. PARDESHI IFS

FROM HANDWRITTEN PASSPORTS TO e-PASSPORTS “We are working on the design aspect of the new generation passports which, along with the e-chip, will have better paper, better layout, improved security features and other improvements,” says Muktesh K. Pardeshi, Joint Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. In conversation with Express Computer. How do you look back at the year 2014 as far as the issuance of new passports in India is concerned? The year 2014 was a great year for the Consular, Passport and Visa (CPV) Division of the Ministry of External Affairs in terms of passport issuance. In this year, for the first time in history, we have issued some 10 million new passports. There are only 3 countries in the world which issue more than 10 million passports in a year — China, USA and now, India. Normally, 60 to 70 million passports get issued by all the nations in the world. So in 2014 more than 10% of the new passports in the world were issued by India. This trend of growth in new passport issuance is likely to continue in India during the coming years. In 2015 we are expecting that there will be a growth of 20% to 25%. Is there a significant improvement in the speed with which new passports get issued? We are now able to issue new passports in a faster and more efficient manner. The average time taken by the government for issuing passports has now come down significantly. We are trying to make the processes even more efficient, so that passports can be issued in fewer number of days. eGovernance is a key theme in this. Without the use of ICT and the new managerial processes we could not have brought such improvement in the system of passport issuance. In this, I would also like to congratulate TCS, the private sector partner in the Passport Seva Project. It has been a good partnership between the government and TCS, that has led to vast improvement in the way passports are issued to citizens. 42

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Can you give us some specific examples of the ways by which ICT has led to the improvement in the process through which passports get issued in the country? The Passport Seva Project was rolled out in 2012. In 2013 and 2014, we made significant improvements in the project. Earlier we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the facility of online payments for passport fees. But we added this component for bringing further convenience to our citizens. Today most people make pre-payment through online system. In fact, appointments for passport applications are only given after the online payment has been made. Other than the facility of online payments, we have also made vast improvement in the number of SMS alerts that we send at every stage. The Passport Seva Project has entered the era of m-governance with the development of a mobile app, which can help the applicant track the status of his passport application. You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to come to the passport office to track the status of your application; you can do it through our national call centre; through a mobile app or through SMS. It has generally been seen that the biggest delays in passport issuance happen on the stage of police verification.What steps are being taken to bring improvement in this area? To address this issue, we are working on the development of mobile app for police officials. Currently the Police Verification Form (PVR) is sent to the SP office, from where it is downloaded and sent to the constable for final verification. But this app will bring digitisation to the last stage. With the app, the police constable can see the PVR on his tablet. When he visits the place of the residence of the passport applicant, after doing the verification, he can upload the PVR report through his tablet. The SP can see the PVR in his office and can use his digital signature to authenticate it, before sending it back to the Passport authority. With this the entire exercise of passport issuance becomes a seamless digital process. In the rural areas, due to lack of digital literacy, many people are unable to access the online systems for filing a passport application.What steps are being taken to EXPRESS COMPUTER

Without the use of ICTand the new managerial processes we could not have brought such improvement in the system of passport issuance. enable these people to take advantage of the eGovernance initiatives that you have talked about? With the idea of serving the people in rural areas, we have also taken the step of integrating the passport service with the common service centres. In the early part of 2014, we started a pilot project in UP and Jharkhand. When the service became successful we began to roll it out all over India. Large-scale training programme has taken place, to ensure that the CSCs have the comprehensive knowledge of how to file the passport applications on behalf of their clients. The project has been quite successful and till now about 30000 applications have been filed around the country by the CSCs. Under the current arrangement the CSCs are allowed to collect up to Rs. 100 from the citizen for filing his passport application. The CSCs can also make the payment on behalf of the applicant, in case the applicant does not have his own credit/debit card or online banking facility. It has been announced that India will in near future start issuing e-passports. What is the concept behind the e-passports? The International Civil Aviation Organisation has recommended that the member nations should start issuing epassports, which is the electronic version of the machine readable passports. About 100 nations have already switched over to e-passports. In our case, we had done a pilot project few years back. The pilot project was successful and India Security Press, which is responsible for manufacturing passports, did the

tendering for procuring the e-chip which goes into the e-passports. The e-chip will have the software, which will make it readable to the immigration department of every passport issuing nation. Whatever is printed in the passport is also there in the e-chip. In addition, the echip has the biometric information of the passport holder. How much time will it take for e-passports to be issued in India? The tendering process has already been started by India Security Press. The prequalification bid inviting bids from interested parties has already been floated. Once the supply of e-chips starts, the India Security Press will start manufacturing the new generation passports, which will have many new security features. There will be some design changes as well. We are working on the design aspect of the new generation e-passports, which, along with the e-chip, will have better paper, better layout, improved security features and other improvements. The India Security Press supplies blank passports, and all the data in the passport is entered in the passport office. For this we need to have a better printing machinery. As soon as the systems are in place, we will begin issuing the e-passports. Currently the passports that we are issuing are machine readable. By 2015 all countries have to phase out handwritten passports.What steps are being taken to ensure that the passport holders in India can transition to machine readable passports? By 24 November 2015, all countries have to phase out handwritten passports. So all governments are trying to ensure that there are no handwritten passports with pasted photographs. We have estimated that there could be about 2.5 lakh handwritten passports still in circulation amongst Indian citizens. These passports could be within India or with Indians living outside. We have taken adequate measures to ensure that the holders of handwritten passports can renew their passports at a very quick notice. We are trying to contact all holders of handwritten passports to inform them that they have to get a machine readable passport before the deadline. FEBRUARY, 2015

FEATURE

BYOD

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DO ENTERPRISES

REALLY NEED A BYOD POLICY? With BYOD becoming a norm, it is becoming important for organisations to chart out a well defined BYOD strategy for avoiding data breaches and violation of privacy BY JASMINE DESAI

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he Federal Bank started using mobile devices for accessing the corporate information from 2009 onwards. Back then the number of such devices was limited and corporate email was the first application that could be accessed through them. Today, however, the number of applications published for access on mobiles has increased manifold along with a variety of devices available in the market. This has both advantages and challenges. K P Sunny, CIO, Federal Bank, says, "Our challenge is to ensure availability of applications on all these devices and to build a device management capability, which can enforce control on all these devices. To be on safer side, we restrict the access to information from specific brand of devices." Further stressing the importance and criticality of the challenge of protecting data that an organisation deals with, he says that this is what will ultimately decide an organisation's willingness to build a mobility strategy. “Also, we are under strict regulations that mandate the need for data management and control. Any instance of data leak will be looked at seriously by the market,which in turn will affect the credibility of the organisation. Hence, there can be no compromise in building such capabilities,” adds Sunny. There is a Gartner report that predicts that by 2017, half of all employers will require workers to supply their own devices for work purposes. According to Gartner, enterprises that offer only corporate-owned smartphones or provide stipends to buy your own will soon become the exception to the rule. As enterprise BYOD programmes proliferate, 38% of companies are expected to stop providing devices to workers by 2016 and let them use their own.

Data capture mayhem With consumerisation of IT, organisations are grappling with the massive amount of unstructured data generated every minute and second. Capturing data becomes an issue when it comes to BYOD. According to Tarun Kaura, Director, Technology Sales, India, Symantec, "The advent of BYOD in recent years has turned personal security threat into a corporate one as well.” Owing to challenges like security, data breach, device management, regulatory issues amongst others, enterprises are reluctant to implement BYOD in their business strategy. According to Symantec’s State of Mobility Survey 2013, 72% of surveyed enterprises faced mobility incidents and 37 % lost revenue due to mobility incidents in the previous year. Manoj Khilnani, Country Marketing Head – Enterprise, BlackBerry India, says, "To provide real value to an organisation’s business, data capture systems must do more than simply capture and export data to the relevant business applications. Data must be efficiently managed through each step of the relevant business process to improve transaction automation and minimise the use of human intervention." He further says that with BYOD, it becomes even more difficult for organisations to distinguish between personal and corporate data and make relevant use. Security and privacy concerns are other key issues in capturing data when it comes to BYOD. Compartmentalisation of personal and professional data by a single, secure, endto-end management console is the solution to all the issues related to data management and BYOD. Dr. Pandurang Kamat, Chief Architect,

The most challenging adjustment for CIOs adapting to the BYOD trend is the need for better systems to authenticate network users, essentially all who access corporate systems with their own personal mobile devices. EXPRESS COMPUTER

FEBRUARY, 2015

FEATURE

BYOD

The advent of BYOD in recent years has turned personal security threat into a corporate one as well. Tarun Kaura, Director,Technology Sales,India, Symantec

The issue in capturing data is that CIO has to balance the organisation’s right to control and monitor its data with the employee privacy. Dr.Pandurang Kamat, (Chief Architect,CTO Org.,Persistent Systems) 46

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CTO, Persistent Systems), says, “BYOD data capture is done with the help of Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM) application suites. The issue in capturing data is that CIO has to balance the organisation’s right to control and monitor its data with the employee privacy.” He stresses that organisations should ensure that they are monitoring only business data and minimal add itional metadata on the phone and the apps on it, and not any personal employee photos, videos or data within non-corporate apps. BYOD definitely enables employees to operate freely from their preferred devices while simultaneously giving enterprises the chance to save on various operating and maintaining costs without any loss of work productivity. However, since the data lies at the end points of the personal devices, there is a very high risk to data security and leakage that needs to be addressed. According to a Forrester report, failure to implement a BYOT (bring your own technology) policy increases information security risks. A majority of enterprises in India are avoiding the necessity to formalise and implement a BYOT policy. This will only push employees to explore and use new consumer-oriented applications and web services to manage their work, putting I&O professionals under tremendous pressure to ensure information security. According to Nilesh Goradia, Head PreSales – India Sub continent – Citrix, "Organisations have increasingly started focusing on data consolidation policies as their primary focus is to collate, manage and secure data. NAS piler is one such example that uses file servers to effectively achieve this target." He adds that organisations constantly face the issue of managing employee devices, and hence the need to define policies to prevent data leakage and have a contingency plan for unforeseen circumstances. In a situation like this, desktop virtualization can help both employees and employers, by decoupling data from a central location such as

server, which ensures that the employees have secure access to corporate data from any device. At the same time, the IT team has complete control over it."

Frame it right The BYOD phenomenon calls for a balancing act between the needs of the employee, the organisation and the available resources. The most challenging adjustment for CIOs adapting to the BYOD trend is the need for better systems to authenticate network users, essentially all who access corporate systems with their own personal mobile devices. The IT infrastructure to support BYOD has developed, but there are a few kinks to iron out in terms of policies and guidelines. According to Khilnani of BlackBerry, "Organisations deploying BYOD policies are exploring new grounds in the consumerisation of IT. They look to improve the productivity of the staff and also believe that costs will reduce drastically as employees will require less technical training if they use the same machines at home and at work." Also, for organisations dealing with BYOD, the ability to manage and secure devices running on different operating systems is critical. With BYOD it is very important that users are allowed to work on the device of their choice. In any workplace, there is a clear need to accommodate a diverse inventory of mobile devices and operating systems. According to Kamat of Persistent Systems, "Clarity of the purpose and scope of the BYOD policy in the mind of the CIO/CISOs is important. It is important to identify supported devices, approved and blocked applications and also to define the level of enterprise IT support available to the supported devices.” He goes on to say that there needs to be a strong security policy for the devices. It is important to establish the data monitoring and ownership policy. It is also helpful to define a clear employee exit policy and procedure to ensure enterprise data and access is removed from the employee device.

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The starting point for any enterprise wishing to embrace BYOD is defining your IT compliance policy. Arun Shetty, Director of Collaboration Solutions India,Avaya

Sunny of Federal Bank is of the opinion that data access and usage policy will be the pivot of a BYOD policy. “It will define what, who and how of the data that is being accessed. The usage policy will help to define how to use the information received. However, defining such policies by itself will not provide the envisaged benefits. Sufficient measures should be taken to enforce the policy and its adherence," he says. According to Goradia of Citrix, as organisations redefine strategic approaches and the consumerisation of IT continues, a complete BYOD policy will need to encompass both policy and technology. “By shifting device ownership to employees, the burden of device management is eased while control of the device is retained," he adds. Few key considerations that need to be accounted for before developing a BYOD policy should include long term cost saving benefits of the implementation, a measure to identify if it has a positive EXPRESS COMPUTER

impact on productivity of the employee, and a visibility into types of devices that will need to be supported. As per Arun Shetty, Director of Collaboration Solutions - India, Avaya, the starting point for any enterprise wishing to embrace BYOD is defining IT compliance policy. “Ask yourself some important question such as — do you have a network access solution that allows you to enforce the IT compliance policy? Can your IT managers quickly and easily add, remove and change devices on the network and limit level of access?" He goes on to say that BYOD devices will leverage the enterprise wireless network when users are on-campus. Organisations need to ask whether wireless network is up to the challenge? Can it scale to accommodate the explosion in mobile traffic? Can it enforce the network bandwidth allocated to devices and users? There are several other points of

As organisations redefine strategic approaches and the consumerisation of IT continues,a complete BYOD policy will need to encompass both policy and technology. Nilesh Goradia, Head PreSales – India Sub continent,Citrix FEBRUARY, 2015

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BYOD

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introspection like what are the critical business applications that the enterprise relies on? Can you deliver these applications across all devices while providing a consistent end user experience? Do you have tools to set traffic rules and prioritise network flow to ensure optimal QoS on mobile devices? Do you have the ability to assign devices to specific service classes to assure that high-priority users and applications receive high-quality service? Does your solution provide for both active and passive guest management? Can you ensure that guest devices coming onto the network have the freedom to access the resources required while protecting sensitive enterprise data? If an emergency call is made from a mobile device within the enterprise, can the user be accurately located? Shetty suggests 'one step at a time' can be hailed as a mantra while devising a BYOD policy. Organisations should always start with simple objectives like securing emails or monitoring 48

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Organisations deploying BYOD policies are exploring new grounds in the consumerisation of IT. Manoj Khilnani, BlackBerry

framework of operations for the network. Once established, this tactical approach can slowly evolve into a more strategic function, which involves analysing the versatile user requirements of the various employees and devising deployment strategies, accordingly. The BYOD phenomenon is undoubtedly helping enterprises deliver smarter and faster collaboration solutions. Indian organisations cannot afford to ignore BYOD and its surrounding components. Goradia of Citrix says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe India is lagging behind in comparison to APJ countries. We have the technology in place to effectively deploy a mobility solution at any point of time. In fact, a large proportion of organisations today are at some stage of a mobility strategy: inception, discussion, assessment or deployment." He agrees that the biggest challenge lies in the lack of a well defined mobile strategy. jasmine.desai@expressindia.com

FEBRUARY, 2015

BUSINESS AVENUES

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FEBRUARY, 2015

EVENT CISCO

CISCO SEES BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN DIGITALINDIA At the recently concluded Cisco India Summit 2014 , the company announced partnership with ITL to support ‘Digital India’ initiative. The company also launched new networking products to contribute to the ‘Make in India’ project

entred around the theme ‘Powering The Digital Economy’, the second annual edition of Cisco India Summit 2014 was held in Bangalore recently. The event highlighted Ciscos's initiative for playing a bigger role in the developmental programmes like the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’. As India is making many decisive moves for empowering its population by making the country a digital economy, Cisco’s top leadership is exploring the possibility of deploying its cutting edge technology in various areas.

Digital India

BY PANKAJ MARU

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“India is moving briskly in the direction of being a digital economy,” said Dinesh Malkani, President – Sales, Cisco India & Saarc, during his inaugural address at the summit. In Malkani’s view, India’s IT domestic market is all set to takeoff in a big way. Quoting Gartner estimates, Malkani

pointed that India will be the third largest IT market in Asia Pacific by 2016 and is expected to move to the second spot by 2018. India’s IT spending will be around $73.3 billion in 2015, which is a 9.4% increase from estimated $67.1 billion in 2014. According to Malkani, the current market trends in India are very positive for the company. Cisco, in his opinion, is all set to play a critical role in various aspects of the Digital India project. Malkani stated that the massive digitisation that is underway would generate more jobs in India and this will lead to improvement in the responsibilities of the ‘Chief Digital Officer’. Such developments easily translate into a huge market opportunity for Cisco. In recent years, the company has strengthened its position in eight market segments in India. “Cisco has moved to No.1 position in eight out of 10 categories in which it operates and has substantial FEBRUARY 2015

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Dinesh Malkani, President – Sales, Cisco India & Saarc, during his inaugural address at the summit. market share across segments, including enterprise routing (75%), switching (71%), telepresence (54%), wireless LAN (52%), service provider routing (52% ) and others,” informed Malkani.

Opportunities for private sector It is estimated that there will be 526 million Internet users in India by 2018 and over 1.5 billion networked devices. Cisco is of the view that the huge surge in mobile devices, Internet connectivity along with digital services both in private as well as government sector will need massive networks and infrastructure. In view of the market opportunities, Cisco has already expanded its presence in 49 cities and will move into more locations to serve the Indian market through its partner ecosystem comprising of channel partners, system integrators (SIs) and global service providers (GSPs). According to Malkani, Cisco will engage in public-private-partnership EXPRESS COMPUTER

(PPP) models to enable various initiatives of Digital India programme — smart cities, education, healthcare, mobile banking services, etc. During the summit, Cisco announced a key partnership session with ILFS Technologies Ltd (ITL) – a technology solutions arm of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS). Under this, Cisco will leverage its Internet of Everything (IoE) concept with ITL’s infrastructure capabilities to build digital solutions for India’s infrastructure and smart cities.

Made in India Cisco is actively participating in the ‘Make in India’ programme by way of collaboration with Covacsis for connected manufacturing initiative. During the summit, Cisco showcased three networking products, which have been conceptualised, architected and designed in India. It unveiled two routers – ASR (Aggregation Services Router)

920-O and ISR (Integrated Services Router) 800M and MDS (Multilayer Director Switch) 9250i. These products are developed and built by company’s engineering and systems division based in Bangalore. “Cisco’s belief is that the innovative application of technology can have a positive impact on India’s competitiveness, diversification of its industry base, its ability to create jobs and improve quality of life for its citizens,” said Amit Phadnis, President - Engineering and India Site Leader, Cisco. “Helping people connect and collaborate is not just core to our business, it’s what makes us want to create and innovate everyday. We are thrilled that the three products we announced today are made from India, made for India and will help enable a Digital India,” concluded Phadnis. pankaj.maru@expressindia.com

FEBRUARY 2015

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E-commerce sales in India to touch $7.69 billion in 2015

India’s Internet economy can reach $200 billion FAST PACED GROWTH in computer literacy will help India’s Internet economy grow to USD 200 billion or 5 per cent of the GDP by 2020, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. Accepting that India’s broadband penetration is low, the minister said the government is addressing the issue in a “time-bound manner”, partly through the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project. “For the Internet Economy to touch $200 billion by 2020 that will contribute 5 per cent of gross domestic product, we need to move at a fast pace towards computer literacy. The other key areas which will help the Internet economy to grow is Mobile Internet,” Prasad said at India Digital Summit in New Delhi. He termed the Digital India Programme launched by the NDA 52

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government as a game changer and said broadband is going to play a key role in it. Prasad released the India@Digital.Bharat report. Internet based businesses and ecosystem around it can reach USD 200 billion by 2020, contributing to about 5 per cent of GDP, said the report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and Boston Consulting Group. Growth in the Internet economy will create nearly 15-20 lakh job opportunities by 2018, the report estimated. Google India Managing Director and IAMAI Chairman Rajan Anandan said: “India is the 3rd country in the world to have over 5 Internet companies valued at over USD 1 billion. India is the fastest growing Internet country but we need to move from narrow band to broadband at the earliest.”

RETAIL E-COMMERCE SALES in India are expected to grow by 45 per cent to USD 7.69 billion this year, research firm eMarketer said. The country had witnessed retail ecommerce sales of USD 5.3 billion last year, according to eMarketer estimates of digital and brick-andmortar retail sales around the world. Retail e-commerce sales, including all products ordered over the Internet except travel, will grow 45.2 per cent to USD 7.69 billion this year, it added. E-commerce has taken India by a storm and has shown potential to grow further with the Indian government, firms and investors trying to capitalise on its popularity. Last year saw big investors from India and abroad putting their money on various e-commerce ventures, which got funds to the tune of USD 3 billion from individuals, companies and private equity firms. The industry players expect the fund inflows to continue, or may be get stronger in 2015 as well. A report by consulting firm Technopak pegs the USD 2.3 billion etailing market to reach USD 32 billion by 2020. Another report by consultancy firm PwC and industry body Assocham suggests that eCommerce firms are expected to spend up to USD 1.9 billion by 2017-2020 on infrastructure, logistics and warehousing. FEBRUARY, 2015

NEWS EGOVERNANCE

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Government plans to roll out Wi-Fi in top 25 cities byJune 2015

E-passports to be rolled out by 2016 THE NEW AGE e-passports are expected to be rolled out in the country by 2016. “We are going ahead and are in the process of tendering. By 2015-16 we should be able to achieve e-passport,” Muktesh K Pardeshi, Joint Secretary (PSP) and Chief Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, informed the reporters. The External Affairs Ministry has plans in place and necessary orders in this regard have been issued, he said. Also known as Biometric or digital passports, these new passports will have a microprocessor chip embedded in it. India, which attained the distinction of being the third largest passport issuing country after China and US last year by processing one crore applications, is aiming at 20 per cent growth this year, he said. EXPRESS COMPUTER

Kerala, where 10 lakh applications were received and processed, topped among the states, while Malappuram registered maximum applications among districts in the country, he said. During January to December 2014, 1.01 crore applications for passport and related services were processed by the External Affairs Ministry. While 87.03 applications for passport and related services had been received, 84.69 lakh passports and related documents had been issued through the Passport Seva System, Pardeshi said. A total of 3,224 official passports and 283 diplomatic passports were issued last year. About 14.95 lakh applications were received at the 183 Missions and Posts abroad and approximately 14.55 lakh Passport and related serves were rendered at these Missions and Posts.

GOVERNMENT IS LOOKING for a speedy roll out of Wi-Fi services at select public places in top 25 cities with population of over 10 lakh by June 2015. “Government has plans to empanel 3-4 wifi service provider for speedy roll out of wifi hotspots across top 25 cities in the country by June 2015. The services will be available at select public places within these cities,” according to an official source. The project is part of Digital India programme under which the government aims to cover cities with population of over 1 million and tourist destinations with wifi services by December 2015. Telecom firms may get three months time to complete roll out from the date they accept purchase order. The project is jointly being worked by the Department of Telecom and Ministry of Urban Development. The government will facilitate permissions required from local authorities for network roll out. The government has also separately identified 25 archaeological monuments to provide free wifi access, the source said. These monuments include Humayun’s Tomb, Red Fort, Qutub Complex in Delhi, Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri Sravasti and Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh, Shore Temple in Mahabalipuram, Vaishali-Kohua in Bihar, Martand Temple and Leh Palace in J&K, Konark Temple in Odisha, Rani-ki Vav Gujarat, Khajuraho and Mandu in Madhya Pradesh and Rang Ghar in Assam. “The idea is that people even foreign tourists should stay connected. Besides, wifi spots will also lower traffic burden on telecom networks,” the source said. FEBRUARY, 2015

NEWS SOCIAL MEDIA

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Finance Ministryto use Facebook, Twitter to push disinvestment

‘Make in India’ Facebook page adds one member every 3 seconds THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT announced that “Make in India” has become its largest and fastest growing digital initiative with 2.1 billion impressions on social media. In the process, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion initiative has “left behind every other government department like the MEA (ministry of external affairs), home ministry or the ministry of information and broadcasting”, the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement. Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign adds a new member every three seconds on its Facebook page and has become the most sought after government initiative ever on any digital media platform. Make in India has seen an overwhelming response on its digital platforms like Facebook and Twitter since its launch just 3 months ago. “The initiative has already touched over 2.1 billion global impressions on social media and reached an overall fan base of over 3 million on its Facebook page,” an official 54

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statment said. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) led Make in India initiative has become the largest and fastest growing government initiative ever on digital media, leaving behind every other government departments, the statement added. On Twitter @makeinindia_handle the official account, has as many as 2.63 lakh followers already within 90 days. The initiative has been abuzz since the very first day, with its launch video garnering over 5.7 lakh views on YouTube. Not just the social networks, even the website (www.makeinindia.com) has received immense response with page views of over 5.5 million accessed by over 1.7 million users across the world. The initiative focuses on attracting businesses to invest and manufacture in India with an aim to make India a global manufacturing hub while bringing about an economic transformation. It has taken the Digital First approach in propagating its agenda across the globe.

GOVERNMENT IS LOOKING at using the social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, in a big-way to generate interest in its disinvestment programme among investors, high networth individuals and opinion makers. The Department of Disinvestment in the Finance Ministry will hire an advertising or public relation agency for the purpose. DoD said the agency will carry out advertising/PR work for sale of government holdings in state-owned firms through market instruments like, Initial Public Offers (IPOs), Further Public Offers (FPOs) and Offer for Sale (OFSs). The agency will be required to disseminate information about stake sale through “social Media including text and voice services as well as social networking services”. It will also have to do public relations exercise through news feeds, blogs and chat shows. The ‘communication partner’, to be roped initially for one year, will assist DoD in formulating a “smart, multimedia communication strategy” and an related work plan. The government is facing a daunting task in meeting the Rs 43,425 crore disinvestment target for the current financial year ending March, as against total proceeds of less than Rs 1,800 crore collected so far in 2014-15. Further, the selected agency will be required to work in association with merchant bankers and legal advisors retained by the government and PSUs to ensure compliance to applicable regulatory regimes. FEBRUARY, 2015

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Empowering India Through Technology Achieving the vision of Digital India The Express Group pioneered the Express Technology Sabha nine years ago to set a new benchmark in eGovernance seminars through leadership dialogues, exciting case studies and best practices, peer-to-peer networking opportunities and technology showcases. We are proud to carry forward the tradition of excellence in the upcoming 17th edition of the Sabha. Key Speakers: Mr. R.S. Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India; Mr. N. Ravi Shankar, Chief Secretary, Government of Uttarakhand; Mr. Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary, Urban Development, Government of India; Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson, Board of Governors, ICRIER; Mr. Tripurari Sharan, Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Bihar; Mr. P.H. Kurian, Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology & Department of Industries, Government of Kerala; Mr. Jiwesh Nandan, Principal Secretary, IT & Electronics & N.E.D.A. Departments, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Mr. Bipul Pathak, Commissioner & Secretary, Transport Department, Government of Jammu & Kashmir; Mr. Muktesh K. Pardeshi, Joint Secretary (PSP) & Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India; Mr. Parvez Ahmad Malik, Secretary, Science and Technology & Information Technology Department, Government of Jammu & Kashmir; Mr. G.S. Naveen Kumar, Special Secretary (IT & E), to the Honâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh; Dr. Ashwini Kumar Sharma, Managing Director, National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT), Government of India; Dr. Govind, Chief Executive Officer, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), Government of India; Dr. Neena Pahuja, Director General, ERNET (Education and Research Network), Government of India and more.

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