Month: August 2019

The inaugural edition of the ‘Safe Smart Cities Conference’ concluded on a successful note at The Lalit hotel, New Delhi. Organized by Corptive Research, the event was supported by GACS, Forces Network and AIILSG; EY was the knowledge partner to the event. MitKat Advisory was the associate partner, and SecurityLink India, Construction World and Urban Update were the official media partners. The event gained broader relevance considering the new term of the BJP government. With the smart cities mission launched on 25 June 2015 by Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, the country undertook one of the largest and most complex urbanization initiatives on the planet – one hundred cities of India were selected as part of this mission in its first phase. The Safe Smart City Conference brought together policymakers including those from Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), CEOs of smart city missions, academia, R&D, corporate leaders from consulting, and design and technology, OEMs, system integrators, as well as startups, NGOs and citizen groups – from across the globe – to have a free and frank exchange on ‘how to make our cities safe, secure, resilient and citizen-friendly,’ and what role each of the key stakeholders is expected to play. Most panelists emphasized on the need to get the necessary infrastructure in place and to leverage technology to make cities more efficient, secure, sustainable, and responsive. Various senior government officials attended the event. Among the senior government representations, some of the major departments were MoHUA, New Delhi Municipal Corporation, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Gwalior Smart City Limited, Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, and Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council. The inaugural edition was attended by Avni Gupta, Deputy Director, Smart Cities Mission, MOHUA; Mahip Tejasvi, CEO – Gwalior Smart City; Sanjay Jha, Special Municipal Commissioner – Chandigarh; Shailesh Kumar Agrawal, Executive Director – Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council; Santosh Khadsare, Scientist E, CERT-IN, Ministry of Electronics and IT; Vishwa Ranjan Gupta, Director, New Delhi Municipal Council Smart City Limited; amidst an august industry gathering. Among the major participants from the private sector were EY, ICICI Bank, Havells, Yes Bank, LnT, NEC, PwC, Mahindra Defence Systems, Tata Tele Services, Ajeevi Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Axis Communications. Tata Tele Services was one of the main sponsors for the event. The conference program at Safe Smart Cities 2019 featured discussions and presentations on a series of relevant and innovative themes including ‘Progress so far in Smart Cities’ and ‘What to do next about developing the Smart Cities.’ Featuring some of the top experts from the government, the program highlighted and brought to the forefront key issues which will play a significant role in shaping the future of Indian urban planning. Safe Smart Cities 2019 hosted eight keynotes along with panel discussions that brought together stakeholders of the industry on a single platform, allowing the exchange of ideas that added value to the smart city ecosystem at large. The panel on ‘Safety & Security of Tech Backbone – Command & Control Center Operations’ had intense discussion from industry stalwarts. The panel focused on bringing efficiency in command & control center operations in a smart city. Emphasizing the need for safety in cities, Samrendra Kumar, MD, MitKat Advisory said, “A smart city by definition must be safe, secure and resilient.” The concluding panel focused on ‘Cybersecurity & Privacy in Smart City.’ The panel saw participation from the audience to understand how the pervasive technology is going to affect their privacy and what is being done to alleviate those concerns. The panel was moderated by Samrendra Kumar. The event was successfully organized by Corptive Research Private Limited, which earlier hosted the Safe Secure Workplaces Conference in New Delhi in February 2019, and the same will be the next.  

Hewlett Packard Enterprise plans to invest $500 million in India over the next five years. This strategic investment underscores HPE’s long-term commitment to India and will enable the company to grow its operations, manufacturing and employee base in the country, increase its R&D and services exports, as well as invest in technology initiatives to drive positive change for local Indian communities. “The Modi 2.0 administration’s vision of a $5 trillion economy is impressive and fitting for a country with this level of energy and opportunity,” said Antonio Neri, President and CEO of HPE and a member of the US-India CEO Forum, “India is one of the largest and fastest-growing economies in the world, and our investments will further develop the country as a critical market for HPE’s global business, as well as benefit our customers, partners, employees and the citizens of India.” “It is a matter of great assurance that a global giant like Hewlett Packard Enterprise is making big investments in India both in manufacturing as well as research and development,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Law & Justice, Communication and Electronics & Information Technology, “This shows the rising confidence of global investors in India’s rapidly growing electronics manufacturing sector and the success of Digital India.” Development of India as a key growth market through hiring and manufacturing To support India’s continued growth as a strategic market for HPE’s global business, HPE plans to increase its workforce in India by 20% over the next three to five years. In particular, HPE will hire new engineering talent with expertise in areas of critical importance to customers such as AI and networking. HPE will also begin construction of a high-tech extension to its Mahadevapura Campus in Bengaluru that will be able to house more than 10,000 employees, as well as stateof-the-art R&D facilities. When complete, the 1.3-millionsquare-foot campus will feature a state-of-the-art workplace, powered by HPE technologies, designed to enhance the employee, customer, and partner experience and foster a culture of innovation. The campus will support a broad range of functions including R&D, engineering services, finance, and sales. “Through our strategic investments in India we will continue to enhance our ability to help customers use technology to redefine experiences, improve operations and achieve their business goals,” said Som Satsangi, MD, HPE India, “To deliver on that commitment, we are creating a culture for growth and innovation at HPE. Our new campus will help us to retain and attract quality talent to deliver for our customers and for the citizens of India.” HPE also plans to commence manufacturing in India. The company is scheduled to start manufacturing Aruba’s portfolio of mobility and IoT solutions in India before the end of 2019. Data and connectivity are catalysts for growth in India, and Aruba’s strong intellectual property and mobile-first philosophy make it ideally poised to facilitate this growth. The manufacturing capability in India will allow Aruba to rapidly innovate networking solutions that will deliver benefits in support of the Digital India agenda and to customers across the country. Investments in innovation to drive positive societal change The HPE investment also includes innovations in support of the Indian government’s initiatives to apply technology to drive positive societal change in critical areas. eEducation: To address the gap of digital literacy among youth in rural areas, HPE has collaborated with NASSCOM Foundation to establish fully equipped digital classrooms under national digital literacy mission (NDLM). These digital classrooms are an innovative, practical and cost-effective solution to deliver skills training to citizens seeking digital literacy education. There are over 50 digital classrooms across the country with four more set to be launched shortly in Maharashtra. Additionally, HPE along with Agastya International Foundation will set-up a Center of Excellence in Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, focused on skilling students in IoT-based agriculture. The facility features advanced IT solutions that are at the leading edge of the agricultural sector’s innovation toward higher food production from finite land resources. eHealth: Addressing the need for affordable healthcare in emerging cities, the HPE eHealth Center (eHC) initiative helps improve access and effectiveness of primary healthcare in underserved areas. These eHCs are a cloud-enabled healthcare infrastructure solution that also offer health data analytics. Across India, more than 130 eHCs and 150 mobile eHCs are operational, and 15 new centers will be established across six states. The eHCs have already facilitated over 800,000 patient visits.          In support of the government’s target of making India TB-free by 2025, HPE announced it has signed the                  USAID TB pledge to provide free diagnostic services to more than 50,000 people through its eHC network. Digital village: Aligning with the government’s initiative to launch 100,000 digital villages in the next five years, HPE is today announcing a further five villages to benefit from a range of services including the HPE digital classroom, HPE’s eHealth Center, free public Wi-Fi provided by HPE Aruba and a range of online citizen services. This builds on the successful pilot launched last year in Manasampally, Telangana. Helping Indian enterprises drive digital transformation Finally, the HPE investment will help enterprises in India redefine experiences, drive intelligent operations and extract value from their data. For example, Vodafone Idea, the largest mobile operator in India, is working with HPE to transform the network’s service & network operations center which controls its vast network and service offerings to over 334 million subscribers using HPE next generation operations support systems (OSS) and HPE intelligent assurance to turn vast amounts of telecommunications network data into actionable insight. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is a global technology leader focused on developing intelligent solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly from edge to cloud. HPE enables customers to accelerate business outcomes by driving new business models, creating new customer and employee experiences, and increasing operational efficiency today and into the future.  

Policing is a matter of state and always needs equal attention like defence. Indian government is paying right attention towards the forces’ modernization. On the sidelines of SMART police, MPF scheme (Modernization of Police Forces), budgetary allocation of over ‘25,000 crores etc., Nexgen Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd. organized 5th edition of International Police Expo in New Delhi, during 19-20 July 2019. Latest technologies from Singapore, Israel, Korea, Taiwan, China, UK, USA, Malaysia, Germany, Australia, Poland and other leading arms manufacturing nations showcased at the expo. There were more than 80 companies who displayed their innovative products and technology for the police and other armed forces of India. The event was graced by the presence of dignitaries like Gen. V K Singh (Retd.), Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Government of India; Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Member, Niti Aayog, Government of India; and Ranjit Narayan, IPS (Retd.) Executive Director, Delhi International Airport Ltd etc. Ravindra Kishore Sinha, an Indian billionaire businessman and Rajya Sabha member from BJP inaugurated the Expo. In his address Mr. Sinha said, “It is easier to identify enemies that we share borders with but it is very difficult to identify who are a threat to the internal security. So modernisation of policing is not only essential but if neglected would create a grave danger. I have always advocated increase of budget for internal security of the country, and with Amit Shah taking the control we might get that increase in budget. He comes from an area near the border, and hence he understands the importance of internal security. While other armed forces are reactive, policing is required to be proactive. What is important for this is integration of detection technologies and communication with response equipment controlled by trained personnel.” According to Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Member, Niti Aayog, “It is a good initiative for Police Forces of India.” This year expo brought innovative technologies, firearms, drones and security equipment for police, CAPFs and CPOs of India. For the very first time, many companies from the background of ballistics and firearms launched themselves officially through this platform like TVS Group, Counter Measure Technologies (A representative of GLock Firearms) etc. The highlights of the event were Bhabha Kavach, a 360 degree protective wear for Indian soldiers and police officers developed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), which is cheaper and lightweight; innovative fire suppression pipe for cars by Deccaleap; flood sacks for disaster management; rugged systems for army and police; advanced lightweight and maneuverable bomb suits by Rotax; advanced forensic systems by ForensicGuru etc. The event was attended by more than 3000 attendees comprising various senior officers like DGPs, ADGPs, IGPs, DIGPs, IPS officers, army, airforce, coast guards, NSG commandos, SPG commandos, forensic lab scientists, government officials from state police forces, CAPFs, CPOs, SPG, NSG, parliament security, DRDO, army design bureau, COAS etc. The event concluded on the highest notes from where it is going to be bigger and better next year. The next edition is scheduled on 14-15 May 2020 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India. The organizers are expecting more innovative security technologies next year for display.