SPO INDIA May 2019 Issue

www.spoindia.org Vol. III | Issue 12 | May 2019 | Rs. 50

www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 1

2 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

LEAD STORY | 30

Fani & Fury@ Puri

Editor-in-Chief: Deepak Kumar Sahu Executive Editor: S Mohini Ratna Assistant Editor: Samrita Baruah Copy Editor: C. M. Dutta Art Director: Rakesh Kumar Network Administrator: Ashok Kumar Singh Manager-IT: Subhash Mohanta Manager-SEO: Bidyadhar Behera BUSINESS: Vice President: Prasanna Rout General Manager: Ashok Ranjan Dash

CORPORATE OFFICE: A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex IGNOU Road, New Delhi - 110 030 Tel: 011-41656383, 46061809 Email: edit@spoindia.org

Bangalore: Bureau office Marketing Manager: S. Kamala Kar D-103 G.F., Ashish JK Apartments Thubarahalli Extended Road Bangaluru - 560066, Tel: 080-49530399 Mobile: 08904205750/9916134482

Mumbai: Bureau office Regional Manager (West): Anil Kumar Anurag Residency, 203 - “B” Wing, Plot No-5, Sector-9, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai - 410 209 Tel: 022-65561292, Mobile: 08108017479

Chennai: Bureau office Branch Manager: Mr.Parthiban K A2, R.C.Residency, Cholambedu Road, Thiruvenkada nagar, Ambathur, Chennai - 600 053 Mobile: 09840055626

NEWS

Kolkata: Bureau office Marketing Officer: Kiran Kumar 67 Sarada Park, Garia, Kolkata - 700 084 Mobile: 09903088480 Printed by Deepak Kumar Sahu and Published by Deepak Kumar Sahu on behalf of Deepak Kumar Sahu and Printed at Pushpak Press Pvt. Ltd. Shed No. 203 - 204, DSIDC Complex, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi-110 020 and Published at A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex, IGNOU Road, New Delhi - 110 030 Editor - Deepak Kumar Sahu

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MISTAKES GENERALLY MOST OF WEINDIANS MAKE ON ROADS! 4 STEPS AN EMPLOYEE/ ORGANIZATION CAN TAKE TOWARDS SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT

SPO CORPORATE 10

UNITED DRILLING TOOLS LTD PITCHES IN FOR SOCIAL WELFARE

CORPORATE NEWS

16

INTERVIEW 29

“SECURING THE BANK’S IT ASSETS AND CUSTOMER INFORMATION IS A KEY PRIORITY FOR US”

32

ITI BULLISH ON A STRONG GROWTH YEAR IN THE WAKE OF VARIOUS OPPORTUNITIES

33

ADOPTION OF 5G BRINGS OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMMSCOPE

34

SYNDICATE BANK EMBARKINGUPON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONIN A BIG WAY IN 2019

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DIGITAL INDIA - FOCUS PSUS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF PSUS

SPO REVIEW

LEAD STORY

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30

All payments favouring:

Kalinga Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. © All rights are reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. (2015) * All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi only.

OUT - TEAM MODI GETS RE-ELECTED FOR A SECOND TERM

SPO ANALYSIS

Hyderabad: Bureau office Branch Manager: Sunil Kumar 32-161/3, 202 Neha Paradise, Nr. Maissamma Temple, Venketeswara colony, Ramakrishna Puram Hyderabad - 500056, Telangana, Tel: 040-32989844/ Cell No. 08100298033

6 – 7, 14 - 15

DHARMENDRA PRADHAN TO WRITE BJP'S ODISHA LEADERSHIP

FANI & FURY @ PURI

ROUND ABOUT

COVER STORY

36

22

MOVEMENTS 38

THE MANDATE IS

DAY DREAMING 5G

www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 3

Could CSR and Cyber Security connect to Secure India Spending on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or welfare schemes like health and education by India’s largest firms stood at Rs7,536.30 crore (around $1 billion) in the financial year that ended in March 2018, according to a survey by KPMG India. The survey analysed the CSR spending of India’s top 100 listed companies.

The CSR spending by top Indian companies in 2018 was 47% higher than what it was back in 2014 when India first made it mandatory for large private and public sector firms to spend at least 2% of their net profits on special development projects. The mandatory funding applies to companies with a turnover of Rs. 1,000 crore or those reporting a profit of over Rs. 5 crore in a year.

The average spend per company on CSR activities has seen a steady improvement. This year, the two outcomes which are showing progress due to the CSR regulation are—governance around CSR and contribution of the private sector in the development. The functioning of the CSR committee has shown significant development as an increasing number of top executives are involved. CSR has also become a boardroom discussion.

Annual CSR Tracker analysed the annual reports of 1,522 companies that are traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange and determined that ₹89 billion worth of funds were disbursed for the purpose of CSR. This equates to 92% of the amount that should have been spent based on these companies’ cumulative profits. This is a significant improvement from fiscal 2015, when only 80% of CSR funds were spent.

Education and healthcare accounted for a bulk of the spending, with nearly 33.5% of funds going towards education and skill development programs, while 25.2% of funds were allocated to health and sanitation projects. In fact, 75% of all companies assessed in the report invested in education and skill development. Further down the list, 11.2% of the funds were spent on rural development, while 9.7% was spent on environmental preservation activities. India is one of the few countries in the world that mandates a minimum spending requirement for CSR activities. A report says that 420 companies did not meet the 2% spending requirement. While 118 companies said that they “did not find the right project”, 95 companies did not mention a reason while 58 said that they required more time to plan. Many companies are not fully utilising their social-responsibility budget. Around 15 per cent of the average corporate social responsibility (CSR) budget in India remained unspent in 2018. As per the new “Advisory for CSR expenditure of CPSEs-reg” approved for School education, Healthcare & Nutrition be kept as common theme for undertaking CSR activities by CPSEs for the Year 2019-20.

I am sure, we can control the growing unemployment ratio, with the stable government at the centre; the BJP's apparent landslide victory marks an easing of political uncertainty and is likely to improve business sentiment and the outlook for private investment.

We are expecting the fiscal deficit to remain manageable in the next few years, but there has been "little indication" so far that the government will pursue significant deficit reduction of the order needed to meet the general government debt ceiling of 60 per cent of GDP

by March 2025 as mandated by the FRBM Act. I expect the government to remain reform-minded, as the BJP's manifesto highlighted the aim to improve the business environment and governance standards, strengthen infrastructure, and stimulate the manufacturing sector through a new industrial policy. .

Deepak Kumar Sahu Publisher & Editor-in-Chief 4 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

Come Let’s Empower Our Fellow Countrymen

by Joining Hands with 46 Years of Tireless Journey

For Provisioning of Aids & Assistive Devices to Divyangjan (Persons with Disabilities)

ALIMCO-Ottobock collaborative Artificial Legs

ALIMCO is associated with various CPSEs and Corporates to take up their CSR obligation as per provision in Schedule VII of Section 135, Companies Act, 2013

ALIMCO SERVED AROUND 22000 DIVYANGJAN PAN INDIA IN LAST FINANCIAL YEAR CSR FUNDS GENERATED WORTH Rs. 47 Crores IN THE LAST FINANCIAL YEAR UNDER CSR INITIATIVE OF 55 CPSEs/CORPORATEs

ISO 9001:2015

Under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan)

Ph.: 0512-2770319 Email: marketing_csr@alimco.in, alimcocsr@gmail.com

www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 5

GOVT. NEWS

Initiatives by Commerce Ministry India CEO forum organized to boost trade with African to facilitate cross-learning on countries climate change issues The Commerce Ministry and Indian High Commissions and Embassies of eleven African countries arranged an interaction over Digital Video Conference (DVC) over two days, on 3rd and 6th May 2019, with the Indian business community in Africa. The interactions with Indian Diaspora were held in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, and Mauritius, Nigeria, Mozambique, Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, and Madagascar. This initiative was held in order to build an effective engagement withthe Indian Diaspora in Africain order to further deepen and strengthen India-Africa trade ties.

The DVC was attended by over 400 members of Indian business community in 11 African countries.

India’s total trade with the African region during 2017-18 was USD 62.69 billion (8.15% of India’s total trade with the World).

India’s share of exports to African countries as a percentage of India’s total exports to the world was of the order of 8.21% in 2017-18. Africa region’s share in India’s total imports from the World accounted for 8.12% in 2017-18.

India CEO Forum on Climate Change organized by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), as the pioneering initiative of the government, inviting industry representatives, exchanged views on climate change issues and discussed opportunities to collaborate in regard to fulfilling India’s national as well as international climate change commitments.

Businesses are recognised as crucial to meeting global climate change goals and forum on Climate Change focused on driving transition to a low-carbon economy. It delivered powerful messages as leaders from the private and public sector gathered to showcase their commitment to tackle climate change.

The Forum consisted of high-level discussions across several sessions covering topics from India’s Nationally Determined Contributions to discussions on the 2019 United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Summit, to be held on 23rd September, 2019 in New York, in which India along with Sweden will be leading the discussions on Industry Transition.

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu calls for strengthening of India-Vietnam ties

DRDO successfully conducts flight test of ABHYAS

On the penultimate day of his four-day official visit to Vietnam, the Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu continued his high-level engagement by holding talks with Vietnam’s Prime Minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc on a wide range of issues and underscored the importance of strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two nations to ensure peace and security in the region.

The Vice President, who is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the 16th UN Day of Vesak Celebrations on May 12, reiterated during his talks with the Prime Minister that cordial and friendly relations between India and Vietnam have been strengthened by bonds of Buddhism and Hinduism.

Referring to the growing cooperation between two nations in different fields, Naidu informed the host Prime Minister that India was ready to partner with Vietnam in satellite construction, both for civilian and non-civilian uses. He also assured him that India remains committed to extend cooperation in training and capacity building of Vietnam's defence forces as that country’s requirement.

6 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted successful flight test of ABHYAS - High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) from Interim Test Range, Chandipur in Odisha today. The flight test was tracked by various RADARS & Electro Optic Systems and proved its performance in fully autonomous way point navigation mode.

The configuration of ABHYAS is designed on an in-line small gas turbine engine and uses indigenously developed MEMS based navigation system for its navigation and guidance. The performance of the system was as per simulations carried out and demonstrated the capability of ABHYAS to meet the mission requirement for a cost effective HEAT. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is an agency of the Government of India, charged with the military's research and development, headquartered in New Delhi, India. It was formed in 1958 by the merger of the Technical Development Establishment and the Directorate of Technical Development and Production with the Defence Science Organisation.

I&B Secretary Amit Khare leads Indian Delegation to Cannes Film Festival

Central government extends ban on LTTE for five years

Vice President calls for translating Vedas into various Indian languages

MoU signed for Rudraksh Plantation in Ganga Basin

India Pavilion is set to be inaugurated at Cannes Film Festival, which will be held from 14th to 25th May 2019. The Pavilion will showcase Indian cinema across linguistic, cultural and regional diversity, with the aim of forging international partnerships in distribution, production, filming in India, script development, technology, promoting film sales and syndication. It will be set up

by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The Pavilion serves as a platform for the Indian Delegates to meet International Delegates attending the Festival to promote networking with other countries and organizations. The Pavilion also serves as an information dissemination point about India and Indian Cinema for the Global Film Community.

The Indian Delegation this year will be led by Amit Khare, Secretary - Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. The Film Delegation would consist of Prasoon Joshi, Chairman - CBFC and acclaimed filmmakers Rahul Rawail, Shaji N. Karun and Madhur Bhandarkar.

The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has visited Vekateswara Veda Vigyana Peetham run by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Tirumala, and called for translating Vedas into various Indian languages in a simplified manner for the common man to understand their importance.

Addressing the students and the teachers of the Peetham, the Vice President described Vedas as a veritable treasure house of knowledge and said they reflect India’s age-old traditions and culture. There was a need to protect, preserve and propagate the scientific knowledge contained in the Vedas on various aspects of life and bring them within the reach of the common man, he added.

Naidu said that Vedas were not mere religious texts but contain knowledge of various disciplines such as mathematics, astronomy, agriculture, chemistry and metallurgy.

The Central Government has extended the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for another five years under sub-sections (1) and (3) of section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967) with immediate effect.

T h e notification states that the LTTE’s continued violent and disruptive activities are prejudicial to the integrity and sovereignty of India; and it continues to adopt a strong anti-India posture as also continues to pose a grave threat to the security of Indian nationals.

India had banned the LTTE after the assassination of Gandhi in 1991. The ban on the group was last extended for five years in 2014.

The LTTE, a terror outfit based in Sri Lanka but having its supporters, sympathisers and agents in India, came up in 1976.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between National Mission for Clean Ganga, HCL Foundation and INTACH for taking up a project of ‘Plantation of Rudraksh Trees in Uttarakhand’ as a part of CSR initiative under the ‘Namami Gange’ Programme.

While the project aims at planting 10,000 Rudraksh trees in the catchment area of river Ganga in Uttarakhand in association with local community and other stakeholders, it will also help in generating income for people residing in those areas.

The tripartite MoU was signed by representative from HCL Foundation, INTACH and Rozy Agarwal, Executive Director (Finance) from NMCG on 14th May 2019 in the presence of Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General NMCG and G. Ashok Kumar, Executive Director (Projects).

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General, NMCG said that Namami Gange Mission aims at providing comprehensive and sustainable solutions for a cleaner ecosystem along the stretch of 97 towns and 4,465 villages on the Ganga stem and a publicprivate partnership will provide the initiative a much-needed impetus. He congratulated HCL Foundation and INTACH for coming forward and joining hands with NMCG in this endeavour. www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 7

SPO ANALYSIS

Mistakes generally most of we Indians make on Roads!

India seems to be amongst those nations of the world where the traffic is most chaotic. Probably, we must be slightly ahead of our neighboring countries but if we compare ourselves with most of the countries, even many underdeveloped countries, our score is pathetic.

I have widely travelled across the world. Needless to mention that in most of the European countries, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong etc the traffic is wonderfully regulated. In countries which are not considered that developed, like South Africa etc the traffic is extremely regulated. I remember a Japanese Student who interviewed me for some project of hers, after completing her questionnaire, asked me a last personal question. She said that she is very confused and surprised as to why don’t Indians follow traffic rules. I really didn’t have any answer.

I introspected and tried to jot down general traffic violations which we generally commit. Following are those instances -

that ‘Agreed that the motorists don’t respect Zebra Crossing or Lane driving.

But then at least stop wasting money on painting Zebra crossings and lanes…….’

1. Lane Driving is fools driving

3. So what if I am standing at wrong lane on Traffic signal

I think, perhaps, 99% of the motorists don’t know the basic lane driving protocols. In the absence of such knowledge, most of us feel that ziz zag driving is the norm, which leads to serious accidents. Moreover, even if someone wishes to drive in lanes, he is not allowed to do so, as the entire traffic moves in a very strange way.

2. Zebra crossings cool off the Vehicle engines from below.

I think most of the motorists give scant respect to Zebra crossing. We normally park our vehicles right on the top of Zebra crossing, except when a Traffic cop is standing. This reminds me of a Japanese expert who was in India who commented 8 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

If we wish to turn right at a signal, it’s our birthright to stand on the second, third and sometimes on the extreme left lane at the signal. The best part is that this violation is so common that even the cop standing at the signal tend to ignore.

This habit leads to the worst traffic snarls but is not considered any major violation, except when special drives are in force at some places.

4. Parking right on the road

This is also considered a birth right to stand right in the middle of the road with doors open ajar as the driver is either taking nap or is a taxi waiting for next passenger.

5. Driving the wrong way

This is more common in relatively rural areas but Cities are not free from this menace either. Incidentally, we Indians feel that ‘arrebhaithorasa to wrong side ayahun. Ismeinkyagunahkardiya’ without understanding the danger involved in it.

There are some roads, across the country, which are notorious for accidents due to wrong side driving by the vehicles.

6. Over speeding

‘Gaddi jandi e chalangan mardi…..’ seems to be the way we speed up our vehicles. Speed limits are followed only where there is a fear of Speed checking by the Cops. Otherwise, we are free country and motorists don’t really keep their cars in prescribed limits. The over speeding is one of the major causes of fatal accidents across India.

7. We are quite secular on Roads

Indian Roads have a unique feature,

which no other country (barring a few neighboring countries) has and that is the existence of Bullock carts, as well as the latest Bugati cars on them. While Cycles, Cycle rickshaws, Tongas and even Bullock carts would be plying on the same roads on which Electric Buses, Mercs or Audis ply. Not really possible for the drivers to smoothly maneuver vehicle.

8. You can expect anything suddenly crossing roads

Imagine yourself gliding at a speed of 100 km/hr on an express way and suddenly 7-8 buffalos just come running crossing the road. We Indians daily put our lives at risk experiencing these interruptions.

While a few new Expressways have still installed fencing, most of the Highways or other main roads don’t have such fencing and this leads to sudden entry of cattle or human beings which results in fatal accidents.

9. Jay walking

The best part is that ‘Jay walking’ is not even considered an offence in most of the parts in India, except for a few sporadic drives by the Traffic Police, mainly in Metro cities. It’s actually considered birthright to cross the road from any stretch of the road, irrespective of the fact that it would result in accident. Incidentally, the hapless driver is declared as ‘Bigadiaulaad of Raeeszaade… etc.’, whereas, the guy might be crossing right from the middle of the road. I hope the Judiciary must be taking this fact into account while pronouncing judgment in such cases.

10. Keeping distance between vehicles would affect my style

The entire world follows Traffic norms in which a safe distance between vehicles is must to avoid accident in case of sudden braking. However, in case someone keeps safer distance between his vehicle and the next one then it’s generally said ‘Oh! It seems you have recently learnt driving…’

Drivers are so confident of their reflex abilities that we hardly keep even a few feet distance. This results in serious accidents and what follows then is ‘Ye deshhai veer jawanonka…..’

11. Availability of Driving License like vegetables

Though, the authorities have now become relatively stricter, at least in bigger cities, the License is easily available in the rural areas. Resultantly, people easily get License from these areas and drive across the country. One does not need to know the rules for acquiring this License, unlike most of the developed countries where the applicants make preparations like a PhD exam. The driver appearing for such Driving test must not only know full driving but must be aware of all the Driving rules. In India because of the availability of License with relative ease, the number of people who don’t even know driving or know only basic driving are able to get them resulting in entry of such dangerous drivers on Indian roads.

12. Absence of enough technology for monitoring

In fact the bad Traffic situation in

India is the result of lack of effective monitoring. In this state of advancement, the traffic is generally monitored with the help of technology. A guy driving his car in New Jersey gets his driving ticket for over speeding by mail. In our country monitoring is generally done manually, which does not remain enough and effective. While in rest of the world the Traffic Police is migrating to technology and violations are detected and communicated by Technology, we still manually check speed etc with age old system of Speed gun risking the lives of the Traffic cops. Moreover, it’s not that the drivers in USA or UK are more honest and follow rules because it’s in their genes. They follow the rules as on every nook and corner cameras are fitted and the violations are recorded with least human intervention. In India people know that generally on specific roads the cops must be standing with Speed guns and they cautiously drive thru those roads and, thereafter, dhrrrrrrrrrrrrr………..

Situation has gone from bad to worst and unless we do something fast, we would be in a big mess. As mentioned above, let’s also take help of technology and then see the result. However, for this, a big will power is needed at the level of Heads of Police in all the States and at the Centre.

Dr. Roopak Vasishtha

CEO & DG - Apparel, MadeUps and Home Furnishing Sector Skill Council (AMH SSC)

Empirical Data launches RedShift solution for transparent CSR operations Empirical Data, a new breed blockchain solution provider has announced the launch and introduction of RedShift, a first of its kind blockchain solution for corporate CSR. This game changing solution provides a robust platform for corporates to ensure smooth CSR project execution. RedShift brings a simple, efficient and affordable enterprise solution that helps corporates to focus and execute humanitarian and social projects.

"A well-executed CSR project is the best way to give back to the society. We are excited to introduce RedShift which will help create greater transparency

and visibility in daily corporate CSR transactions. With RedShift we aim to change the way businesses interact with various stakeholders in the CSR activities," said Karthik Ramarao, Founder & CTO at Empirical Data.

Empirical Data is incorporated as the Indian subsidiary of trANa Technologies, headquartered in Singapore, providing ground-breaking enterprise solutions on its blockchain - Fusion Core. By adding leading-edge innovations and enhancements to the open source blockchain framework, Empirical Data has successfully integrated blockchain

with sensors, IOT and ML to introduce new breed of solutions for enterprises.

RedShift enables a shared system of immutable single data source for all stakeholders. Its applications reach far beyond the scope of CSR and philanthropy. Apart from providing step by step execution of activities, this tamper proof solution provides a consistent set of records for the whole value chain to see and review. RedShift enables stakeholders and auditors to easily trace the provenance of the data as well as to be prepared for random inquests from government audit bodies. www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 9

SPO CORPORATE

United Drilling Tools Ltd pitches in for social welfare United Drilling Tools Ltd (UDTL), a leading manufacturer and supplier of major drilling tools such as wire line and well service equipment, Gas lift equipment, down-hole tools and large OD casing connectors used in oil industry, has under the aegis of its Chairman Pramod Kumar Gupta and other members of CSR Committee spent more than Rs. 2.8 million in the last fiscal year ended 31stMarch, 2019 for different charitable and social welfare programmes related tofood, health andeducation,help to widows, slum dwellers, destitute elderly people and poor and underprivileged children of downtrodden families among others.

The company’s total spending on social causes was Rs. 28, 07, 380 during the last financial year.In this period the company spent the money for women empowerment and skill development; development of education in slums; old age homes; medical support and treatment of underprivileged children of very poor families; and distribution of blankets among the needy ones.

Women empowerment and skill development The company donated Rs. 100,000/to Care for Life Charitable Trust Kirti Nagar for food grain Ration to widows and Rs. 1, 82,000/- to Surya Sansthan, Noida, Sector 12 for purchasing UPS and 10 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

purpose of using it for disabled children; Rs. 2, 00,000/- to the Institution of Blind, R K Ashram, Delhi for the construction of rooms at Andh Vidyalaya; and Rs. 1, 50,000/- to Arunodaya Charitable Trust, Gurugram for purchasing an Eye Testing machine. three computers and their maintenance and repairs thereafter.

Development of education in slums For developing education in slums, the company donated Rs. 3,00,000/to Lex Alliance Foundation, Delhi who are running a bridge school in village Bhooda in Noida Sector 81; Rs. 1,53,280/- to Akshaya Pratishan, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi to distribute school uniforms among poor children; and Rs. 2,68,250/- to Shloka Missionaries for the construction of school rooms in village Sitamarhi, Bihar.

Old age homes The company has also donated for old age homes. It gave Rs. 2,40,000/- to Earth Saviors Foundation, Gurugram for the welfare of elderly people residing inashram; Rs. 3,00,000/- to SHEOWS, Badarpur, Delhi for adoption of five to eight persons for a whole year; and Rs. 1,00,000/- to Jan Kalyan Trust, Noida, Sector 5 for construction work.

Medical support and treatment of unprivileged children of the poor families The company has very keenly shown its philanthropic attitude towards the health and well-being of underprivileged children of poor families by providing Rs. 2, 00,000/- to National Organization, Govindpuri, New Delhi for the treatment of children with heart diseases, and the salaries of Doctors who are giving their services at the Rehab centre. It has also given Rs. 2, 00,000/- to the Institute of Child Development, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi for purchasing an Omni van for the

Other philanthropic work The company also distributed blankets of Rs. 2, 44,340/- among the poor and needy ones in Delhi NCR and donated Rs. 25,000/- each to Chief Minister Distress Relief Fund (Kerala flood) and Bharat Ke Veer Fund (Pulvama Attack).

Participation in campaigns, exhibitions and summits UDTL which is an ISO and API certified company having four factories in Noida and in Kandla, Gujarat regularly takes part in various drives, exhibitions and summits from time to time. During the same fiscal period it participated in World Cleanup Day and the 13th international oil and gas conference and exhibition - Petro-Tech Summit 2019.

Incorporated in 1985 and listed in BSE since 1986, UDTL has a total paid up capital of Rs. 20,30,31,260/- with a healthy current share prices between Rs. 100/- and 120/- in the stock market. The company has been distributing constant dividend and issuing Bonus Shares in the ratio of 1:1 to its shareholders since May 2018. India’s oil giants Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) and Oil India are its major customers as the company supplies various drilling tools and equipments to ONGC and Oil India to fulfill their requirements in the field of oil and gas industry. With a major role to play in India’s oil and gas industry in near future, United Drilling Tools Ltd is now eying international markets as well to become a giant itself in the field of global oil and natural gas exploration industry.

SPO ANALYSIS

4 steps an employee/organization can take towards saving the environment According to recent reports, paper consumption is expected to reach 23.5 million TPA by 2025 in India is currently at ~15 million tonnes per annum (TPA).

This is a staggering number considering the threats that our environment is facing due to our actions.

It is sad that companies are the major consumers of paper as processes like invoices, balance sheets, drafts, letters etc has to file mandatorily. However they too are doing their bit by avoiding printing paper, growing saplings as part of employee engagement activities etc. Is it enough? Maybe not because according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, we are losing 130,000 square km of forest cover every day. It is imperative that every employee of an organization does their bit, a conscious attempt to go paperless can be an excellent starter to save paper.

While there are some processes that still require paper, there are a lot of platforms that an employee can adopt to reduce their carbon footprint.

HERE ARE 4 STEPS THAT AN EMPLOYEE/ORGANIZATION CAN TAKE TOWARDS SAVING THEIR ENVIRONMENT – • File reimbursements online: Employees have been filing their reimbursements manually since the longest of time, imagine the amount of time and effort is wasted and not to forget the paper that they use! There are multiple platforms like Zeta that help digitizes the entire process—from the distribution of grants at an HR manager’s end, to completely digitizing the way claims are uploaded, tracked and finally claimed by employees. Zero use of paper and a big step towards the environment!

• Storing documents virtually: Employees often print documents that have to be shared across offices or just plain carry to a meeting. With a platform like Google Drive, an employee has the liberty of not only storing documents but preparing them on the go too. This means employees can use these tools for writing reports, create slideshow presentations all on the same platform.

So next time you’re about to hit “Ctrl+P” or thinking of starting a new journal, consider adopting a paperless method through Google Drive!

• Virtual team messaging: Team messengers in general offer a platform that helps people connect anytime, anywhere and aids the virtual workforce. Lesser meetings, lesser paperwork, lesser huddling for catch up calls. The rich and intuitive messenger, as well as the customizable modules help people to manage their teams and processes better with automated workflow. These powerful platform also enables users to integrate frequently used external apps (like Google Drive, Instagram, Facebook and more) and even build custom app, bots, and integrations. The most handy team messengers available today are Flock, Yahoo Messengers, Hangouts etc.

• Digital HR processes: Every employee must be familiar with using paper for processes like leave application, income tax declaration etc. If they adopt a platform like Pocket HCM – an employee self-service portal that will give you the freedom to view, manage and update your personal details on the go. This not only means faster processes but less wastage of paper as everything is digitized! www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 11

CORPORATE NEWS

RichFeel to come to Cancer patients’ aid India’s most trusted and prominent hair care brand RichFeel has come up with a social initiative wherein it would provide free hair treatment to the cancer patients throughout the year all over India.

Appropriately named 'Drop the Scarf', this initiative aims at bringing back one's lost self-confidence and restore their self-image after people lose their hair through cancer treatment.

Through the Meenaxiben and Rekhaben Shah Memorial Trust, Dr. Apoorva Shah and Dr. Sonal Shah, Founder of RichFeel and India’s first certified Trichologist & Pioneer of Trichologist in India, as a corporate social responsibility initiative, are striving to bring in a positive outlook and change in the lives of cancer patients.

This initiative will help with imageenhancement, appearance and provide

one-on-one consultancy, an attempt to help patients face their challenges with cancer, with a positive mind frame and in turn help to boost their confidence and self-esteem.

Dr. Apoorva Shah, Founder of RichFeel and the Pioneer of Trichology in India, said, “It’s always a pleasure to help cancer patients and give back to society in some way. I am extremely honoured to be hosting this noble cause. If anyone is fighting cancer with treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, it

is inevitable to lose hair and when that happens it causes great trauma to the patients.

During their path-breaking journey over the last 38 years, this renowned Trichologist has won several accolades in India as well as abroad and introduced pioneering treatments for hair from all over the world.

The RichFeel Trichology Centre is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to recognize and treat most hair and scalp conditions.

RichFeel has been providing expertise in hair care, beauty and personal care for over 3 decades now. It offers a complete solution to all your hair and scalp problems ranging from hair loss to dandruff, alopecia, premature greying, male and female pattern baldness, using the latest of technologies & treatments, including advanced hair camouflaging techniques: non-surgical and surgical.

Girls in Tech CEO announces largest donation in history due to Pega’s Fundraising Initiatives Pegasystems has announced a grand total of $402,000 raised as a result of their fundraising initiatives. The announcement was made on the main stage of PegaWorld 2019 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas by Girls in Tech founder and CEO, Adriana Gascoigne, as part of her keynote speech on creating an inclusive culture for the next generation of female technology leaders.

As part of the fundraising initiatives, Pega donated $500 to Girls in Tech for every eligible PegaWorld registration from January 24 to February 21, 2019.

Additionally, the Trefler Foundation, pledged to donate an amount equal to 50 percent of the pass price of each eligible PegaWorld registration sold from April 8 through April 30, 2019.

12 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

The money raised, which is the largest donation Girls in Tech has received in its history, will go towards global initiatives aimed at educating and empowering women who are passionate about technology. These may include -

• A year of Global Classroom courses, which help up to 2,000 participants broaden their technical skills • Four Hacking For Humanity hackathons around the world, which will help 320 new and seasoned hackers work on solutions that will benefit their communities

• Expansion of the Girls in Tech Mentorship Program to more chapters around the globe • Additional funding and exposure for early-stage women founders through AMPLIFY, Girls in Tech’s business pitch competition “I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to be at PegaWorld and share my vision for a technology industry that not only supports inclusivity, but actively advocates for it and all the benefits it can bring,” said Adriana Gascoigne, founder and CEO, Girls in Tech. “We’re very grateful for the record-breaking generosity shown

by Pega and the Trefler Foundation and look forward to seeing how this funding will change the lives of women around the world.”

CSS Corp conducts Computer Literacy Training program for Autisticstudents CSS Corp,a new-age IT services and technology Support Company hasorganized a ‘Computer Literacy Training program’for students of Jayam Special School, Chennai from March 14th to April 26th, 2019. The program equipped autistic students withessential IT skills such as word processing and computer safety. To ensure students have ongoing access to IT equipment, CSS Corp also set up the school’s first computer lab.

The initiative is a part of CSS Corp’s ‘Digital Literacy’ CSR program, which aimstoequip students withthe computer skills necessary for modern life.

During the program, CSS Corp employees worked closely withschool authorities to conduct engaging training sessionsthat equippedstudents with vital digital skills. Highlightsincluded • Introduction of acomputer literacy programas part ofthe school curriculum • Students with speech impairments learned to communicate with teachers using technology • Students participatedin fun activities such as envelopeand cover making, andwere invited to display their art skills at the CSS Corp facility in Chennai

CSS Corp has organized IT training programsforclose to2,200 students across a variety of Chennai schools, including a ‘Computer Literacy Program’ at a Government Girls Higher Secondary School during2018. Students attending these programs are trained in word processing, spreadsheets,and Internet safety,and alsoreceive career and development counseling.

Array Networks conducts relief program for Cyclone Fani victims in Puri Array Networks acted fast and came forward to help the Fani victims by handing over relief packages in Gop block of Puri district, Odisha. The regional team took up the task of reaching out to the victims who have not been attended post the cyclone tragedy.

On 25th May 2019, Array members teamed up with local volunteers to identify and aid relief and recovery in Gop. A total of 100 relief packages were distributed, which could take care of the families for few days.

"Fani is one of the worst cyclones that has hit India's eastern coastline, Odisha. While many have come together to help the victims, a lot of attention is still needed from rest of India," said Ajay Mohanty, Regional Sales Head (East) at Array Networks. "I would like to thank my colleagues, local volunteers who came forward to help in packaging relief packets, distribution and managing people. They were our local guides, who helped us in

identifying the real victims, easing the distribution process."

Array local team together with donor and volunteers conducted a two days relief program to deliver meals and basic amenities to the affected families. Volunteers travelled 200 kms to identify the victims who required support and help. They selected 15 villages to start with, after identifying victims, the team distributed relief packages, each carrying tarpaulin, solar lamp, basic amenities like cereals, pulses etc. at the Local LIC office.

"We at Array feel proud to be able to extend timely support to help the cyclone victims with our small contribution. It is in times like these, that the humanity comes together as a team to help restore normalcy," said Shibu Paul, VP - International Sales at Array Networks.

The government, NGOs and localities all have come together for the relief and restoration of Odisha.

www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 13

CSR / PSU

Swachhta Pakhwada celebrated successfully by DVC

Damodar Valley Corporation celebrated Swachhta Pakhwada fortnight with full zeal and enthusiasm from 16th to 31st May 2019. The program started with pledge taking ceremony at Headquarter and field formations on 16th May 2019.

Awareness Camps, Seminar, Panel Discussion, Talks, Workshops, Painting & Drawing, Slogan writing, extempore speech competition were held in different projects of DVC and Head Quarter on Swachhta during this fortnight.

Notable among them are Panel discussion on 'Clean Energy: The Future' by the distinguished guests Padmashree (Prof.) C. Ganguly, Prof. (Dr.) S. K. Saha, (Retd.), J.U., Prof. (Dr.) C.K. Chanda, IIEST, a talk on 'Mann Ki Swachhta' by Swami Vedatitananda, Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, Seminar on 'Taboos and Myths around Menstruation' by Dr. Madhumita Dobe, DirectorProfessor, AIIH & PH and Dr. Somnath Bhattacharyya, Executive Director, SEED, a talk on 'Urban Waste Management' by Prof.

(Dr.) Brajesh Kr. Dubey, IIT Kharagpur, Personal Hygiene, SelfMotivation and Man Ki Swachhta by Brahma Kumari etc.

RINL -VSP conducts a ‘Bicycle Rally’

On the occasion of ensuing World Environment Day, a 'Bicycle Rally' was organized by RINL-VSP at Ukkunagaram.

Around 300 participants including youth and school children participated in the event organized by Environment Management Department (EnMD) along with Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI).

Chief Guest, O.R. Ramani, ED (Works) I/c, RINL flagged off the Bicycle Rally. The rally started from Thrishna grounds of Ukkunagaram that covered all the sectors of Ukkunagaram and concluded again at Thrishna Grounds.

While speaking on the occasion, Ramani appreciated the efforts being taken up by the EnMD and YHAI for creating awareness about protecting the environment among the public with such rallies.

P Balachandra Rao, GM (EnMD) congratulated all the participants and thanked them for coming forward to take part in such a social cause.

14 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

SJVN organises ASCENFANT SJVN GEN Y Conclave for executives

SJVN Limited has organised a two day Conclave ‘ASCENDANT’ SJVN GEN Y Conclave for the young executives of SJVN at Royal Tulip, Kufri, Shimla. This Conclave is the brain child of the visionary Chairman & Managing Director of SJVN - Nand Lal Sharma and the aim of this innovative initiative is to sync the Shared Vision of SJVN to become a 5000 MW company by 2023, 12000 MW by 2030 & 25000 MW by 2040 with the ideas of the young executives of the company.

The Conclave was inaugurated by Chairman & Managing Director Nand Lal Sharma in the august presence of IAS (Retd) Deepak Sanan and IAS (Retd.) Ajay Mittal. On this occasion, Director (Finance) A. S. Bindra; Director (Electrical) R. K Bansal; Director (Personnel) Geeta Kapur; Director (Civil) S.P. Bansal;Ex CGM, SJVN - H.B. Sahay, and K.K Gupta, Ex CGM, SJVN were also present.

NCL to produce 106 MT Plus Coal in FY 19-20 - CMD

P. K. Sinha, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Northern Coalfields Limited has said that NCL will create a record in current financial year (2019-20) by fulfilling its 106.25 Million Tonnes of coal production and 106.25 Million Tonnes of coal dispatch targets. He said that the previous financial year (2018-19) has been a proud year for NCL in which the company became third company of Coal India Limited that produce more than 100 million tonnes of coal annually. Sinha was interacting with media persons at NCL headquarters on Saturday.

On this occasion, Gunadhar Pandey, Director (Technical & Operations) NCL; P. M. Prasad, Director (Technical, Project and Planning) and Director (Finance and Personnel) N.N. Thakur were also present.

Referring to company's accomplishments, Sinha said that in the last financial year (2018-19), the company produced 101.50 million tonnes of coal and dispatched 101.60 million tonnes of coal which not only exceeded the assigned targets, but also became the highest ever production and dispatch figures ever touched by the company in its history.

IndianOillaunches mega sales promotion campaign

MRPL warns against fake job offers

Chairman, Coal India releases World Environment Day 2019 posters

GSL launches 2nd Indigenous Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Vessel

IndianOil, the country’s largest retailer of petroleum fuels, has launched a countrywide mega sales promotion campaign titled Cricket Car-Nival.

The entire IndianOil network of nearly 27,000 retail stations across the country is participating in the campaign. Cricket CarNival was launched by Mr. Subodh Dakwale, Executive Director (Corporate Communications & Branding), IndianOil, at the company owned retail outlet in BKC, Mumbai, in the presence of senior officials from the Corporation.

This mega scheme will run for the period of six weeks from 1st June 2019 to 14th July 2019 across the country.

At end of every fortnight, customers will get a chance to win attractive gifts. After the end of campaign on 14th July 2019, a lucky draw for bumper prize will be conducted and eligible customers stand a chance to win cars or motorbikes.

Anil Kumar Jha, Chairman, Coal India Limited (CIL) has released the posters of World Environment Day 2019, to be held on 5th June 2019.

S. N. Prasad, Director (Marketing & Finance); Binay Dayal, Director (Technical), CIL;Saroj Kumar Sadangi, CVO; M. K. Singh, (GM & TS) to Chairman, and T. K. Mukherjee, GM (Env), CIL were present on the occasion.

World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated on the 5th of June every year, and is the United Nation's principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of our environment. First held in 1974, it has been a flagship campaign for raising awareness on emerging environmental issues from marine pollution, human overpopulation, and global warming, to sustainable consumption and wildlife crime. WED has grown to become a global platform for public outreach, with participation from over 143 countries annually. Each year, WED has a new theme that major corporations, NGOs, communities, governments and celebrities worldwide adopt to advocate environmental causes.

Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL), a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and a subsidiary of Oil Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), issued a warrning for the general public to be cautious of fake job offer.

MRPL noticed that some unscrupulous elements are issuing fraudulent or bogus appointment offers to job aspirants on monetary consideration. This type of fraud tends to occur through online services including bogus websites, online job boards, or through unsolicited emails. The aim of the fraud is to mislead candidate into believing that he is applying for, or obtaining employment from MRPL, in order for these individuals or organizations to obtain money or his personal information.

MRPL added that process of its recruitment is most transparent, objective and designed to pick up the most promising for a rewarding career.

The 2nd Vessel of the indigenous Project for 05 Offshore Patrol Vessels for Indian Coast Guard was ceremoniously launched on 25 May 2019 at Goa Shipyard Limited. Seema Mittal, wife of Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) Sanjiv Mittal performed the launching rituals and named the vessel as ‘Sujeet’.

The first vessel of ship class was launched three months earlier by the Raksha Mantri on 21 Feb 2019. The ceremony was attended by Coast Guard Commander ( W e s t e r n Seaboard) – ADG K Natarajan; PTM, TM, Flag Officer Goa Area RAdm Philipose G Pynumootil; NM, Director General of Goa Police Prabnav Nanda and CMD, GSL Commodore BB Nagpal, and various other senior dignitaries.

The ongoing shipbuilding project for 05 Offshore Patrol Vessels is one of the biggest orders being executed by GSL for the Indian Coast Guard. This indigenous Project was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 13 Nov 2016. www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 15

DIGITAL INDIA - FOCUS PSUs

Public Sector units (PSUs) or Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) play an important role in the country’s economy. They promote rapid economic development with emphasis on creating and expanding infrastructure, generate financial resources for the development of the economy, create employment opportunities, promote balanced regional growth and encourage and develop small scale and ancillary industries in India.

PSUs provide a huge leverage to the government (their controlling shareholder) in achieving the desired socio-economic objectives.

Understanding the role that the PSUs play in the economic growth of the country and at the same time the power of digital in the current era, the Indian Government is playing a pivotal role in pushing forward an agenda of digital transformation in all public sector organizations. It is thereby catalysing several PSUs and government departments to look at leveraging digital technologies in a big way.

Four waves of Digital Government innovations have emerged in the contemporary times – s Digitization – improving internal government operations and delivering better public services s Transformation – facilitating administrative and institutional reform in government s Engagement – engaging citizens and non-state actors in policy and decision-making processes and s Contextualization – supporting policy and development goals in specific sectors and localities.

SIGNIFICANCE OF IT IN PSUS Today leveraging ICT to improve business processes and to perform better in a competitive world has become a necessity for any company, be it a PSU or a private sector firm. Consequently, there has been a significant interest in planning and on developing digital transformation best practices and applying them to ensure that these programmes and initiatives are on the right track and are more aligned to outcomes. Today with the help of ICT, various projects can be monitored, capacity building of individuals can be enhanced and also efficiency and competitiveness of PSUs can get enhanced.

It is therefore important for the government to play a crucial role in harnessing the power of digital technologies and data to fundamentally re-imagine and transform the business models of not only the government but also in all the government agencies, institutions and organizations.

While much progress has been made by the government, the full potential of digital transformation remains largely untapped. For digital transformation to happen in the real sense, it’s important to implement the latest technologies and ensure that they contribute to specific business measures. A lot of gaps and loopholes need to be filled for the transformation and happen on a large scale and to be effective.

VARINDIA therefore presents before its readers a list of 40 agencies and organizations, comprising of PSUs and government nodal agencies that have realized the power of technology and have made inroads into adopting the latest technologies, thereby embracing the ongoing digital transformation.

16 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

STPI boosting and promoting software exports from the country

CERT-IN safeguarding the country’s IT security fabric

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN)

HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION

HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION

Dr. Omkar Rai (Director General) WEBSITE

https://ibps.stpi.in

Sanjay Bahl (Director General) WEBSITE

https://www.cert-in.org.in/

Software Technology Parks of India is set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in 1991, with the objective of encouraging, promoting and boosting the Software Exports from India.

Envisaged under the Digital India program, STPI launched the India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS). The India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) seeks to incentivize the establishment of 48,300 seats in respect to BPO/ITES operations across the country. This is expected to help in capacity building in smaller cities in terms of infrastructure and manpower and would be the basis for the next wave of IT/ITES led growth. This scheme has potential to create employment opportunities of around 1.5 lakh direct jobs, while also creating a good number of indirect jobs.

CERT-In was formed with an aim to secure the Indian cyber space. It has been designated under the Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008 to serve in the area of cyber security as the national agency to perform - Collecting, analysing and disseminating information on cyber incidents; Forecasting and alerting of cyber security incidents; issuing emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents; Coordination of cyber incident response activities and Issuing guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes and whitepapers relating to information security practices. CERT-In has also signed several MoUs with the ministries in about seven countries - Korea, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Uzbekistan, which encourages the participating companies to exchange technical information.

MyGov.in initializing policy change and its implementation through collective feedback

GeM enhances transparency, speed in online procurement of goods & services

MyGov.in

Government eMarketplace (GeM)

HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION

HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION

Arvind Gupta (CEO) WEBSITE

https://www.mygov.in/

MyGov platform is a unique initiative involving the common citizen at large. The idea of MyGov is to bring the government closer to the common man by the use of online platform, thus creating an interface for healthy exchange of ideas and views involving the common citizen and experts, in the country’s governance and development. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the social and economic transformation of India. The website is hosted and managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

The crowdsourcing platform launched its version 2.0, with newer features such as hashtags, polls, interactive discussion forums and social media account integration. The impact assessment of this citizen engagement platform was done by Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi.

Radha S Chauhan (CEO) WEBSITE

https://gem.gov.in/

Government eMarketplace has been set up as a dedicated e-market for different goods & services procured by Government organisations/departments/PSUs. The earlier 100 year old DGS&D has been shut down and was replaced with a digital ecommerce portal for procurement and selling of goods and services.

Government e Marketplace (GeM) facilitates online procurement of common use Goods & Services required by various Government Departments/Organisations/PSUs. Aimed at enhancing transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement, the platform provides the tools of e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation to facilitate the government users, achieve the best value for their money. www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 17

DIGITAL INDIA - FOCUS PSUs TCIL continues to provide infrastructure facilities in high tech areas

ITI Limited to diversify its business into the IoT domain

Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL)

ITI Limited

HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION

K. Alagesan (Director - Production & Chairman and MD)

HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION

A. Seshagiri Rao (CMD) WEBSITE

https://www.tcil-india.com/

WEBSITE

http://www.itiltd-india.com/

TCIL is a wholly owned Government of India Public Sector Enterprise under the administrative control of the Department of Telecommunications (DOT), Ministry of Communications, Government of India. It was set up for providing Indian telecom expertise in all fields of telecom, Civil and IT to developing countries around the world. As a part of the larger IT modernization project, TCIL is executing a rural hardware project called DARPAN - "Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India" with Ricoh India Limited for Department of Posts, Government of India. TCIL was awarded a prestigious project for “Implementation of Computer aided education in 1500 schools of U.P under ICT scheme on BOOT basis� by Director of Secondary Education, UP.

ITI Limited is the premier telecom company and multi-unit central public sector undertaking in the telecommunications segment. As part of its diversification plans, ITI Limited is foraying into IoT business and has empanelled IoT vendors in various domains.

To enter into this business vertical, ITI will leveraging its manufacturing infrastructure and expertise in implementing various smart solutions and will assemble and manufacture various IoT products. ITI will utilize this technology for developing various smart applications in verticals like Smart Metering, Smart Health, Smart Environment, Smart Surveillance, Smart Agriculture, Intelligent Transport & Smart Solutions etc.

IOCL continues to meet the growing demand for petroleum products

RailTel paving the way towards digital transformation of Railways

Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL)

RAILTEL

HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION

Puneet Chawla (Chairman & MD)

HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION

Sanjiv Singh (Chairman) WEBSITE

WEBSITE

www.railtelindia.com

https://www.iocl.com/

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (lndianOil), the largest commercial oil company in the country, continues to set up state-of-the-art refineries across the country to meet the growing demand for petroleum products. As on 31st March 2018, the company owns 11 (including two of its subsidiary) of India's 23 refineries with a combined refining capacity of 80.70 MMTPA. As an organization, IOCL has experimented with latest technologies like IoT, AI, and oil terminals for monitoring the health of fuel stations. IOCL has also designed mobile apps for ease and convenience of the customers and dealers - FUEL@ IOC is an app on which one can search about the nearest fuel stations, while XSPARSH is a mobile app for IndianOil Dealers.

18 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

RailTel Corporation is one of the largest telecom infrastructure providers in the country. Set up in 2000 as the ICT arm of Indian Railways, RailTel owns the pan-India optic fiber network. The optical fiber and communications (OFC) network covers 70% of India's population, touching all important towns and cities of the country.

RailTel has already covered 45,000 plus Rkms with fibre, which connects over 4,500 cities and towns across India. It is closely working with various central, stage and private entities helping them build the next generation digital infrastructure.

It has worked with Rajasthan and Haryana governments, Pune Smart City as well as MHRD by providing Campus WiFi in 24 Central Universities.

ALIMCO working in the interests of PwDs of the nation

C-DOT expands to develop intelligent computer software applications

Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO)

Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT)

HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION

HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION

D R Sarin (CMD)

Vipin Tyagi (Executive Director)

WEBSITE

http://www.alimco.in/

ALIMCO is functioning under the Administrative Control of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). It is set up with the objective of benefiting the PwDs by manufacturing and by promoting, encouraging and developing the availability, use, supply and distribution of Artificial Limbs and other Rehabilitation Aids. ALIMCO as an organization is committed to digital transformation and has launched an online beneficiary registration system, 'On-line On-Site' to ensure transparency in schemes implemented by the ministry to provide assistive aids PwDs. It replaces the old manual registration process and will bring absolute transparency in providing assistive aids and appliances to PwDs.

WEBSITE

http://www.cdot.in The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) is an Indian Government owned telecommunications technology development centre. It was established in 1984 with initial mandate of designing and developing digital exchanges.

C-DOT has expanded to develop intelligent computer software applications. It has offices in Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. It is one of the 2 Indian Government organisations which have been appraised at Maturity Level 5 of CMMI-DEV v1.3, other being Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) Software Technology Centre.

In February 2014, United Telecoms Limited the technology licensee of CDOT had won GPON order from BBNL to a value of Rs 1000 Cr approximately. This is the biggest win by any CDOT partner in global competitive bidding in recent years.

Oxfordcaps sets up an all-women customer support center in partnership with SHEROES Oxfordcaps, Asia’s first branded and tech-enabled student housing company has announced that it has set up an all-women customer support center in partnership with SHEROES. Under this partnership Oxfordcaps and ‘Managed Remote Solutions’ (MARS) by SHEROES will provide better job opportunities to the women workforce. This initiative will offer Oxfordcaps a service where certified women professionals are deployed on various customer support processes to help drive the company’s customer facing business.

Oxfordcaps is co-founded by INSEAD graduate Annu Talreja, CEO and IIM-Calcutta alumni Priyanka Gera, COO – the company has clocked a 75X growth in <11 months since its launch in India and has expanded from 200 beds to acquisition of over 15000 beds. Oxfordcaps aims to grow its operations across education hubs in India including Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Greater Noida, Dehradun, Indore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

Annu Talreja, CEO of Oxfordcaps, said, “At Oxfordcaps, we are trying to do our bit to create more jobs and provide equal opportunities for women. Apart from having extremely talented women in our workforce, our partnership with SHEROES will now ensure that our customer support center is run entirely by women. These women will be a part of Oxfordcaps’ customer support center as they have the required skill set in customer servicing. All of us at Oxfordcaps are thrilled to be a part of this innovative initiative of having an all-women customer support center!”

This partnership is a unique way of providing certified, skilled women a chance to get back to work. There are many talented women in the country who are unable to find a suitable job after a break in their career due to personal reasons like maternity leave, marriage or inability to leave their house as they have to look after their children.

“Our pipeline of women professionals come to us via the MARS community on SHEROES platform. The women are certified

by SHEROES not only on the grounds of profession, academics, skills, readiness and infrastructural set up to work from home, but also on work culture, empathy, seriousness and the output that they deliver. We are very happy to associate with Oxfordcaps as it is also led by women founders - Annu Talreja and Priyanka Gera. Our engagement with Oxfordcaps creates great value for their consumers and also meaningful work for our talented MARS women professionals. It’s a win-win situation for both,” says Sairee Chahal, Founder - CEO of SHEROES. www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 19

SPO REVIEW

Dharmendra Pradhan to write BJP's Odisha leadership Dharmendra Pradhan Member of Rajya Sabha

Dharmendra Pradhan, 50, is serving his second consecutive term in the Rajya Sabha. Son of former union minister of state for surface transport, Debendra Pradhan, and an M.A. in Anthropology from Utkal University in Odisha, Pradhan started his political career as an Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activist in 1983. He became the president of student union in Talcher in 1985. Later, he became the national secretary of ABVP. He first became the BJP national secretary and then the general secretary. By 2012, he got elected to Rajya Sabha from Bihar. When PM Modi swept to power in 2014 polls, he was made the union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas with independent charge.

Dharmendra Pradhan initiated various key initiatives under the Narendra Modi government's biggest social initiative of providing free cooking gas (LPG) connection to poor women that helped build a base for the party in Odisha as well as across the country.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjawla Yojana, he was responsible for doubling the LPG customer base to 26 crores in just five years.

He kept Odisha central to his political priorities and virtually drove many projects in the oil ministry.

A prominent face of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in just concluded Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Odisha, Pradhan’s political journey has witnessed a rise. Elected to the upper house 20 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

of the Parliament this time from Madhya Pradesh, he is a threetime MP and one-time MLA. Pradhan, known as the BJP's face in Odisha also held the portfolio of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in the last government. While skill development has been given a new face, Pradhan has been given an additional responsibility of the steel sector that requires special nurturing given sluggish market conditions and an onslaught of cheap steel imports.

Pradhan's tenure as the Petroleum Minister featured deregulation of diesel prices, daily price revision of petrol and diesel. He also unveiled the new Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) that provides investor-friendly regime to boost the country's oil and gas exploration activities under an open acreage policy. During his tenure as Petroleum Minister, the country also witnessed record high levels of petrol and diesel prices on the back of high crude oil prices.

Pradhan was administered oath of secrecy by the President of India at the swearing-in-ceremony and made a cabinet minister in PM Modi 2.0 government at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Thanking PM Modi and the BJP leadership for showing confidence in him, Pradhan while speaking to media after the oath-taking ceremony, said, “Modiji’s Cabinet is based on lot of aspirations and we all will give our best efforts to make the PM’s dream of a new and developed India and Odisha successful.”

www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 21

COVER STORY

The Mandate is out - Team Modi gets re-elected for a second term

The Mandate is out - Team Modi gets re-elected for a second term Narendra Modi has posted a spectacular win for a second term and will be ruling India as the Prime Minister for another five years.

The success factor was mainly the emotional factor that personified the strident Hindutva nationalism and attracted the first time voters following the terror attack in Pulwama in February and India’s response to it — which was botched up as it is now clear — was cleverly used to mobilise passions that were visible for anyone who cared to observe and take note of.

About 67 percent of more than 900 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the staggered elections that the ruling party fought on issues of national security and a hard-line Hindu agenda.

22 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

In the wake of the big win, PM Narendra Modi has become one of the most powerful politicians in Indian history. He is the first prime minister in nearly 50 years to win a majority in the Parliament in back-to-back elections, and now commands a sweeping mandate to govern a nation of 1.3 billion people.

Allies retain portfolios in new Cabinet Post elections, several Ministers from the previous government retained their portfolios, with some given additional charge.

Amit Shah gets Home and Nirmala Sitharaman is India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister.

Senior

Minister

Nitin

Gadkari

KEY HIGHLIGHTS • Narendra Modi has swept back to victory with a resounding majority of well over 300 seats • Narendra Modi said his party would "never give up" on its ideals and culture • Congress President Rahul Gandhi accepted defeat and congratulated the prime minister on his win • With 900 million eligible voters, the general election of India is the largest vote in the world • More than 2,000 parties and 8,000 candidates contested 543 seats. A party or coalition needs at least 272 MPs to form a government

continues as the Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Ravi Shankar Prasad stays on as the Law Minister, along with Information Technology and Telecommunications.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal retains charge of the Ministry - which was earlier held by Suresh Prabhu who has been dropped - with the addition of Commerce. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan retains the crucial portfolio and has been given the additional responsibility of Steel.

Smriti Irani, continues with her old portfolio of Textiles, along with Women and Child Development, formerly held

by Maneka Gandhi.

Thawarchand Gehlot has again been allotted the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, with former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda being the new Tribal Affairs Minister.

Newly inducted Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank” is the new Minister for Human Resources, while Prakash

Javadekar has been made the new Minister for Environment and Forests and of Information and Broadcasting.

Prahlad Joshi will take care of Coal along with Parliamentary Affairs. Minister of State with Independent charge, Kiren Rijiju is the new Sports Minister. R.K. Singh continues to hold power and renewable energy, while Hardeep Puri has been allotted Civil Aviation.

The opposition Indian National Congress (INC) won 52 seats. In 2014, the Congress was reduced to 44 and it has improved with 8 more seats.

THE NEW TEAM OF MINISTERS Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister and in charge of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space; all important policy issues. All other portfolios not allocated to any Minister.

Name Portfolio Rajnath Singh Amit Shah Nitin Jairam Gadkari

Minister for Defence Minister for Home Affairs Minister for Road Transport and Highways; and Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises D.V. Sadananda Gowda Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Nirmala Sitharaman Minister for Finance; and Minister for Corporate Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Narendra Singh Tomar Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Minister for Rural Development; and Minister for Panchayati Raj Ravi Shankar Prasad Minister for Law and Justice; Minister for Communications; and Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Harsimrat Kaur Badal Minister for Food Processing Industries Thaawar Chand Gehlot Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment S. Jaishankar Minister for External Affairs Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ Minister for Human Resources Development Arjun Munda Minister for Tribal Affairs Smriti Irani Minister for Women and Child Development; and Minister for Textiles

Dr. Harsh Vardhan

Minister for Health and Family Welfare; Minister for Science and Technology; and Minister for Earth Sciences Prakash Javadekar Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change; and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Piyush Goyal Minister for Railways; and Minister for Commerce and Industry Dharmendra Pradhan Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas; and Minister for Steel Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi Minister for Minority Affairs Pralhad Joshi Minister for Parliamentary Affairs; Minister for Coal; and Minister for Mines Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Arvind Sawant Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise.

Giriraj Singh Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries Gajendra Singh Shekhawat Minister for 'Jal Shakti’, Ministers of State (Independent Charge) Santosh Kumar Gangwar Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Labour and Employment Rao Inderjit Singh Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation; and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Planning

www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 23

COVER STORY Shripad Yesso Naik

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH); and Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence.

Dr. Jitendra Singh Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region; Minister of State in the Prime Ministerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Minister of State in the Department of Atomic Energy; and Minister of State in the Department of Space.

Kiren Rijiju Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs Prahalad Singh Patel Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Culture; and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Tourism.

Raj Kumar Singh Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Power; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Hardeep Singh Puri Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Civil Aviation; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Mansukh L. Mandaviya Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Shipping; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Ministers of State Faggansingh Kulaste Minister of State in the Ministry of Steel.

Ashwini Kumar Choubey Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Arjun Ram Meghwal Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises General (Retd.) V. K. Singh Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Krishan Pal Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

24 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

RaosahebDanve

Minister of State in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution G. Kishan Reddy Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Purushottam Rupala Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ramdas Athawale Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development Babul Supriyo Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Renuka Singh Saruta Minister of State in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs Sanjeev Kumar Balyan Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development; Minister of State in the Ministry of Communications; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Anurag Thakur Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs Suresh Angadi Minister of State in the Ministry of Railways Nityanand Rai Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Ratanlal Kataria Minister of State in the Ministry of Jal Shakti; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment V. Muraleedharan Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs Som Parkash Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry RameswarTeli Minister of State in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries Pratap Chandra Sarangi Minister of State in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Kailash Choudhary Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Debasree Chaudhuri Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development

The governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has told opposition parties to accept "defeat with grace" after a slew of exit polls suggested that the ruling party would get a comfortable majority and form the next government.

Opposition parties have however raised concerns of vote fraud. A number of videos, allegedly showing Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) being tampered with, went viral on social media. There are several leaders from opposition parties who met with election officials to raise their concerns. However, the BJP has rejected their concerns.

"EVM is good when Mamata Banerjee became West Bengal chief minister twice and Amarinder Singh became Punjab chief minister. If they win, EVM is good. But when there is expectation that we will win because people of this country want Narendra Modi to be prime minister again, then EVM is unreliable.

The BJP condemns their (opposition) conduct and will tell humbly to accept their defeat with grace," Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Sources said, according to the opposition parties, the EC was "yet to

come out with a mechanism" to deal with a mismatch between an EVM result and the corresponding paper trail.

During voting, EVMs are connected to a Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine, which dispenses a slip of paper with the symbol of the party the voter selected. The Supreme Court has ordered the EC to tally the results from five EVMs with VVPAT receipts in at least five polling stations in every assembly seat. A parliamentary constituency comprises of several assembly seats. But opposition parties say that the tally should be done for the entire constituency in case of a mismatch. However, as per the media report, there has been a showcase in the Election commission website on the figures mismatch.

India's Election Commission has denied allegations that voting machines had been tampered with in parts of India.

Opposition leaders said the EC had to ensure that there was no possibility of anybody manipulating the EVMs which were used to record votes in the general election.

The Election Commission has insisted

that "proper security and protocol" was maintained in storing the electronic voting machines.

No discussion on government’s performance Discussions on the performance of Modi’s last five years were limited to welfare schemes, which helped him. Controversial topics such as demonetisation, economic growth and job creations did not find space in public discussions. It clearly points out to the weakness of the opposition party as they could not find the right agenda/Tie-up to fight the general election.

All these factors contributed to Modi to win for a second term. With the Modi government's return to power, it is also expected to set at rest any fears that the laws made in its interim budget 2019 may be rolled back by a new government following the general elections. The main among these include - full income tax rebate for those earning up to Rs 5 lakh per annum, increase in standard deduction from salary to Rs 50,000, removal of tax on notional rent on second house, hike in TDS threshold limit and so on.

INDUSTRY REACTION ASHUTOSH HARBOLA

CEO & Co-founder - Buzzoka

"The re-elected government will have a lot more on their shoulder as new India has higher expectations this term. While digital India saw a mammoth growth in the last term, we expect the same to continue with higher investments in Digital India etc. Also, on the front of ease of doing business, the government took some major steps last term and we expect even simpler processes should be implemented. And finally, on the GST front, I would appeal the government to introduce simpler filing processes for start-ups and MSME's."

KUSHAL NAHATA

CEO & Co-founder - FarEye

“While initially, India’s start-up ecosystem was largely dominated by consumer-facing companies, B2B

ventures are finally finding their feet now. India added 2,300 B2B start-ups in the last 5 years. With the increased focus and support from the BJP government, we are certain that the next 5 years will bring immense opportunities and growth for start-ups in fast-growing sectors like Logistics-tech, Agritech, Fintech, and Healthtech, et al.

The government should include regulations that will drive organizations to digitalize key logistics and supply chain processes. For instance, by mandating digitalization of certain key accounting, billing and logistics processes the government can ensure greater levels of compliance, at the same time organisations can improve efficiency.

We also expect the government to build integrated transportation hubs or Multi-Modal Logistics Parks that foster an invigorating ecosystem for logistics in

India.”

KISHAN JAIN

Director - Goldmedal Electricals

“The rapid proliferation of new technologies such as internet of things, artificial intelligence, connected devices & home automation, have provided FMEG companies tremendous opportunities to grow, flourish and expand into newer industry segments. Additionally, the past few years have seen the Government of India having a keen focus on the promotion of energy efficient solutions such as LED lighting.

With the current Government all set for a second term in office, we hope that this trend continues as it would give further fillip not only to the manufacture of such products but also to the Government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Smart Cities’ initiative.” www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 25

COVER STORY JITENDRA CHATURVEDI

Director and Co-founder - Batooni Mobile Advertising

“The government had started smoothening the tax issues in start-up funding. Continuation of the regime will hopefully hasten the change in the procedures and laws helping startup funding. BJP’s known penchant for advertising is very good news for adtech start-ups”.

BHAVIN TURAKHIA CEO - Zeta & Flock

‘’In the last four years, Indian B2B start-ups have more than tripled. Our country is now taking giant strides towards becoming one of the fastest growing start-up hubs globally. To make this a reality and accelerate their growth, the new Government of India must put in place measures such as training hubs for entrepreneurs across India to ease flow of capital, regulatory compliance and more. Further, these hubs must act as one-stop knowledge, research and development centers so that start-ups can focus more on innovation and less on processes. Thus, acting as a catalyst or emerging start-ups across sectors.”

SATYAM KUMAR

CEO & Co-Founder - LoanTap Financial Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

“Currently, a start-up needs to follow number of compliance laid down by various regulatory bodies as well as there is a knowledge gap because of multiple points of contact. While they are definitely necessary, they are onerous and costly to comply with. Compliance is expected with regards to Labour Law, MSME Registration, Investment, MCA Compliance as well as ones related to individual sectors. There should also be consideration on hefty penalty in cases of non-compliance.

Expectation from Government is to make process simpler to comply with - A single clearance window - which ensures end to end solution or procedure to be followed by a start-up that enables proactive compliance as well as helps to avoid unnecessary costs.’’

26 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

JAVED TAPIA

Founder & MD - Clover Infotech

“India is all set to become a USD 5 trillion economy. The new government should enable creation of technology hubs and allied training centres across major cities and towns in India. In addition to bridging the skill gap of graduates, this will also accelerate the adoption of new-age technologies such as AI, data analytics and cloud.

These disruptive technologies coupled with a young population can foster enhanced levels of growth through entrepreneurship and innovation and significantly augment India’s competitive edge globally."

SUBRAMANIAN NN

Director-Delivery and Co-Founder Maveric Systems

“Technology plays a major role in raising productivity and innovation. We sincerely believe that technology can become an important driver for our country’s economic growth and social development. However, to begin with, government should push more on the impact of AI/IOT, data science and analytics network which is beneficial for the IT industry. Digitization and faster web will also continue to encourage the technology industry in India.

Implementing these dealings can also improve access to data and will enable India’s transformation into a data-driven economy. Another major challenge in our country is job creation and therefore this sector should be vigorously promoted in order to facilitate generation of employment and envision a digital world with plenty of options for the youth of tomorrow”.

SARUTUMULURI

CEO - Veri5Digital

"A big boost is anticipated for the Financial Inclusion and Fintech sector in the second term of the NDA government. Fintech will continue to be a sunrise sector and with more supportive government regulations will exhibit tremendous growth and innovation especially in the sachet size

financial products. With our suite of onboarding & digital products (KYC, eSign, eNACH), Veri5Digital will have a very important part to play in this growth sector by helping BFSI maintain compliance and costs in the delivery of these sachet size solutions."

RAHUL BAHUKHANDI

CEO & Co-founder of LaYuva, an E commerce Start-up

"As expected, this is once again a decisive mandate which will pave way for yet another strong government at the center. The results today shows the mood of the nation and not surprisingly the markets too have responded optimistically to the results. Like the previous time, I expect the government to continue its focus to bring in more foreign investments which promote start-ups and entrepreneurship.”

RASHI GUPTA

Co-founder & Chief Data Scientist Rezo.AI

"A stable government at the centre will ensure the successful and speedy implementation of more than 150 schemes and policies that the BJP government introduced for the startups. We applaud the NITI Aayog’s plan to create an institutional framework for artificial intelligence (AI) in the country.

We look forward to the next 5 years of the new government and are positive that it will continue its focus and support to the start-up ecosystem; especially to give a push to adoption of AI in India."

NEEL JURIASINGANI

CEO & Co-founder, Datacultr

"We welcome BJP again as the Government of India. In the past five years, the government has shown tremendous interest in the start-up ecosystem of India and has made several policies to make it easier for entrepreneurs to launch new businesses and create jobs. Numerous start-ups have forayed into the various unexplored sectors and have given a new shape to the economy of India. Now, with BJP coming again, we foresee a multi-fold growth of the entire gamut of the start-

up network with all the stakeholders leveraging the change in the ecosystem.

With the vision of moving towards Smart Cities, Fintech, AgriTech and Smart Industries, the government of India has been a great support for startups."

YOGESH BHATIA

CEO - PreLoved Device

"As a start-up we are expecting a very smooth and feasible ecosystem from the coming government, so that start-up like us run their business without any administrative obstacles and we welcome new government, on behalf of all startups industry."

KARTIK AGARWAL CEO - Staunch

"We welcome Modi government again, in last 5 years government has launched more than 150 schemes and policies for the start-up community interest. Further pushing the Indian youth to look at start-ups as a viable career option, the government launched Fund of Funds worth INR 10,000 crore whereas NITI Aayog launched the Atal Innovation Mission to foster innovation among budding entrepreneurs at the grassroots level. Now, with BJP coming in power again, we have a huge expectations ranging from Clarity on angel tax to tax exemptions on ESOPS, easing active compliance norms and state level funding & infrastructure support."

VINEET CHATURVEDI Co-Founder - Edureka

“These election results are a mandate of the aspirations of India's youth and its young manpower and Technological progress is going to be the biggest asset for the country. We are confident that the current government will continue its progressive policies and by working closely with Industry and Training Organizations and we will have the talent to build the next Amazons, Alibabas and Facebooks of the world in India.

We believe that the applications of the future will be made-in India and for India. The Indian economy is growing at a very fast pace and corporations

of the world do not want to miss out on this opportunity. To provide them with a relevant workforce, we highly recommend Skilling Allowance for all tax paying individuals. Such a rebate that rewards continuous learning will go a long way to create a workforce that can make India a skill powerhouse.”

PUSHKAR MUKEWAR

Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Drip Capital - a US-based trade finance firm

"When the new government sets out its agenda, we hope the slew of measures announced to improve credit access for MSMEs will be put into action. So far, much of the policy support to fintech has been on the retail side, that is, digital payments. What is now needed is a big push to promote fintech in areas such as MSME lending and export finance, to help solve the credit gap problem for the MSME sector. Additionally, if PSUs are indeed mandated to ensure that 25% of their purchases are from MSMEs, this will give the sector some much-needed impetus. We also hope that the wrinkles in GST will be ironed out in the next few years."

JUERGEN HASE CEO - Unlimit

“The Indian start-up sector have already been ignited in the past five years with favourable policies around taxation, investments, ease of doing business, incubation, foreign capital, cross border, start-up lobby groups, industry associations. The foundation of the ecosystem is already in place with India being the third largest hub for start-ups globally.

Active government involvement is the need of the hour to resolve challenges such as unemployment, and funding for the growth of the industry and the economy at large. For startups to flourish it is imperative to create an environment that is conducive to physical, offline small businesses and hardware product firms operating locally. The new government should continue with initiatives such as Make in India and Digital India to aid the growth of the start-up industry and also work towards a digital economy by installing

proportionate methods to tackle policy challenges.”

SAMPAD SWAIN

CEO and Co-Founder - Instamojo

“We welcome the newly elected Government and look forward to the next phase of growth and economic development. Across the last 5 years, we have witnessed the implementation of some impactful initiatives including that of Digital India and Make in India which continue to benefit the growth of the economy. For the new term ahead, we hope that the government introduces measures to streamline taxes and ease regulatory policies for the MSMEs of the country which would further the impetus of the sector and ease of doing business.

Also, we believe that the government should address the major challenges faced by MSMEs, primarily the absence of adequate financial options and skilled labour which is a significant deterrent to the progress of the sector.”

CP GURNANI

MD & CEO - Tech Mahindra

“Spearheading the world’s largest democracy is no mean feat, so congratulations to the winning team. It is time for us to drive positive change by leveraging digital technologies and embolden India’s collective dream of becoming a five trillion dollar economy.

This also underscores the massive task that lies ahead of us - of shaping India’s future. It’s time for each one of us to step-up, collaborate and contribute towards the great India.”

SAURABH SAXENA

Country Director - Micro Focus India

“India’s rich diversity, demographic potential, fast-growing market size and digital infrastructure has potential to make India a global hub for research and implementation. With initiatives like Digital India, Make in India, AI council, etc. the Government had set a great precedent in accelerating the era of digital transformation and Industry 4.0.

Though some of the economic policies created a blizzard of controversy, they successfully paved a path to use science, www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 27

COVER STORY technology and innovation skills for the citizen services as well as to boost the indigenous innovations, achieving synergy between various industries and scientific research. This was reflected in a historic movement as the World Bank’s latest Ease of Doing Business Reported India’s rise to 77th rank, up from 100 within a year. Introduction of technology in the sphere of governance has brought in greater transparency, accountability, and monitoring. With the second term, we expect the government to utilize the mettle of India Inc. and emerging technologies like AL, ML, IoT and Big Data to solve socioeconomic issues of the country. The need of the hour is also to pursue with more vigour important initiatives like deregulation and privatization of stateowned companies along with reforms to modernize labour markets to uplift the job scenario in the country. There are mounting possibilities and expectations for the Government, we look forward to the Centre to now lead us into a better connected world.”

NAVTEJ SINGH

CEO, Digital Business, Hitachi Payment Services

“It is our belief that the (new) government will take steps to further strengthen the fintech ecosystem in India. With the consumer in mind, the government should introduce regulations that are flexible in nature and benefit multiple stakeholders.

While regulations like sandbox and ‘nocompromise’ approach towards safety will further drive innovation and security in the fintech space, a more market driven approach towards pricing, the timelines to implement the norms and flexibility would be equally important.

The push towards more convenience, cost effectiveness and adoption of technology that make lives easier for every Indian citizen such as UPI, IMPS etc. should be the topmost priority.”

HIMANSHU PUJARA

Managing Director, Euronet Services India Pvt. Ltd.

“A right mix of policies, regulation and incentives are required to further 28 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

the fintech space. The Government thus far has been extremely supportive by promoting the platform for real time and faster payments, creating an environment that has let to huge investments in the fintech space which has allowed mushrooming of several hundreds of start-ups who are enabling innovation.

Going forward the Government has to ensure that policy and regulation have a coordinated run with industry requirements and innovation to foster creativity, new investments and secure growth of the sector.”

HARSHIL MATHUR

CEO & Co-Founder, Razorpay

"This government has had a very strong focus on Digital India and FinTech, and we are happy that they will continue to do so. A lot of programs were initiated towards digitisation of the country and increasing access to fintech last year - this must progress with a fresh commitment to democratise digital payments. The impact of GST should bring more people into the tax bracket.

One reform that I am expecting is the tax and GST benefit for businesses opting for digital transactions. We were looking forward for this to happen last year, however, hopefully, the government will do it this year."

SUMAN REDDY

MD - Pegasystems India

"The government, through a range of forward-looking policies has a track record being a catalyst to the IT sector in India. This growth has, in turn increased the industry's share in the country’s GDP. The results give us hope that the groundwork laid during the previous regime will translate to an improved policy environment and faster industry growth over the next 5 years.

Every player in the industry is looking to operate in a competitive environment, find market opportunities to grow, and create jobs. Companies have seen the fruits of a favourable business climate created and are working towards the united goal of creating a trillion dollars of economic value through the digital economy by 2025. They also look forward to adequate levels of protection

to maintain India’s competitive advantage over other regional tech hubs and respect the interest of consumers using their services.”

ANSHUMAN MAGAZINE

Chairman and CEO, India, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa - CBRE

“A stable, forward-looking government goes a long way in building a robust economy which in turn will further strengthen India Inc. From policy overhauls to amendments in the older acts to ensure that these acts are relevant in today’s times, the foundations laid down by the Government during its last tenure will bear fruit during this term and will further boost the growth of the country.

CBRE is committed to bringing the best real estate consulting services to India and are positive that the elected party will further work towards strengthening the Indian economy and successfully implement the promising schemes and programs.”

SANJAY AGARWAL

Director and Co-Founder - Umbrella Infocare

“We hope the new term brings with it a favourable policy framework for IT software and Hardware products manufacturing under Make in India. The government must also encourage big corporates to enter local manufacturing of IT equipment. This will replace high dependency on Import and boost employment and export.

Secondly, we feel a flexible and reduced tax, legal, labour law compliance for IT start-ups will prove beneficial, as currently, compliance cost for small companies is very high. Thirdly, we expect the government to offer quick response to issues faced by new-age tech companies like Cloud, e-commerce, edu-tech, Fin-tech. Existing policies and laws do not cover rules for such newage companies, leading to litigation and business loss. And finally, we have long been demanding rationalization of high TDS rate on re-sale of software services including cloud services, because it directly impacts growth of business and increases cost.”

INTERVIEW

“Securing the Bank’s IT assets and Customer Information is a key priority for us” REDEFINED CIO ROLE As IT takes the center stage of an organization’s business strategy, it is natural that the role of CIO also transforms accordingly. While the earlier expectation from a CIO was limited to the operational aspects involving running of the IT function, today a CIO is expected to deliver the product as well as enhance the customer experience, as most of the offerings to the customers are digital products.

DHANANJAYA ARVIND TAMBE DMD & CIO SBI

IT and Information Security have now become part of the overall business decision right from the design phase itself. Thus, now the CIO has two distinct roles to juggle running the IT operations smoothly and be a key member driving business growth.

INNOVATIONS & ROI The fierce pace at which technologies are evolving is posing its own challenges to drawing a shot strategy or mantra for developing revenue streams and promoting innovation. In SBI, we have adopted a two pronged strategy of partnering and cocreating with FinTechs and promoting internal innovation by our employees. We have a dedicated department which focuses solely on emerging technologies as well as fostering partnerships with startups. We also adopt the practice of first going through some use cases to figure out the best fit for the technology within the organization to find whether adopting the technology would add value to the organization or not. The only success mantra in today’s dynamically changing world is to be open to changes and keep on experimenting even at the cost of failures.

KEY PRIORITIES The key agenda for the Bank in terms of digital business is providing simple, intuitive and secure solutions for the customers. While providing a seamless, individualized customer experience is a key objective for us, considering the recent cyber attacks across the world, securing the Bank’s IT assets as well as customer information is a key priority for us. In fact, both the UX piece as well as the IS functionalities are involved in the product development cycle from the design phase itself to reduce time to production as well as ensure the effectiveness of both the two functions.

Another key area of focus for us is adoption of emerging technologies like AI, ML, RPA etc. for increasing operational efficiencies and taking data driven decisions. In fact we have started a lot of PoCs in these areas to find the best fit for the Bank. We are also actively adopting the concept of API led open banking and are pursuing virtualization and cloud technologies with an aim of securing as well as enhancing our digital business.

“We have been proactively adapting to the changing business environments. Our latest digital offering, YONO, is one such step in this direction, catering to the customer’s lifestyle and banking needs by a single app and completely digitized processes. Adopting to any new technology requires a whole process of iteration and experimentation, which we are committed to doing.”

CallHealth and LiveHealth come together to accelerate Healthcare Diagnostics CallHealth, the world’s first and truly integrated healthcare platform for “Everything about health” has announced its tie-up with LiveHealth, a SaaS based endto-end collaborative report management solutions enterprise that automates the entire lifecycle of customer’s diagnostic assessment journey- from sample onboarding, lab instrument interfacing to intuitive report delivery. Commenting on the benefits of the partnership for the health ecosystem as a whole and customers in particular, Hari Thalapalli, CEO, CallHealth

said, “The tie-up with LiveHealth will not only help create deep integration within the provider ecosystem, it will also change the speed and manner in which customers can access, interpret and use their diagnostic report results. This partnership will thus enable faster sample collection, instrument interfacing and barcoding, comprehensively manage the customer’s health information and ensure reports provide real-time intuitive health insights that are instantly accessible to the customer.”

Stating the importance of this

association, Abhimanyu Bhosle, CEO & Co-Founder, LiveHealth said, “LiveHealth thrives to deliver the best connected, simpler & safer experience through our products.

And to do this, we work with healthcare providers in the most consolidated manner, to know more about how records are generated, where technology can deliver its best, and how patient experience can be improved. Tie-up with CallHealth, India’s leading enterprise in the space it operates in, will ensure LiveHealth puts its protocols for use of a wider range of customers.” www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 29

LEAD STORY

Fani & Fury@ Puri

Cyclone Fani, which affectedPuri in Odisha, with wind speed of around 200 kmph, brought immediate rain in the Kolhan region, but the impact was expected to be more pronounced later with the state experiencing very heavy rainfall through Saturday. The Odisha government was fully prepared to face the natural disaster and all credit goes to the Navin Pattnaik government and his entire team and for teaching the world how to prepare for disasters.

The worst-affected state, Odisha, has been successful in keeping the loss of life and numbers of affected people to a minimum. This is the result of a very effective strategy of disaster preparation and quick responding. More than a million people were evacuated from vulnerable areas in 15 districts in Odisha to around 4,000 shelters. The Odisha government has declared holiday at schools and colleges in the state in anticipation of the oncoming cyclonic storm. From 30 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

many years serially, Odisha is facing the problem of a super cyclone.

Cyclone Fani has left behind a trail of death and destruction on the Odisha coast, worst affected being Puri and Khurda districts and the capital city of Bhubaneswar. The latest death toll touched the number to 38. More than 11 lakh people are being evacuated in Odisha.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• Over 28 million people including an estimated 10 million children are in the path of the impact of Cyclone FANI in Odisha in mainly 14 districts • The Government of Odisha-NGO (GO-NGO) coordination mechanism reactivated with UNICEF support during last year’s Cyclone Titli will be extended during the current cyclone • Government is currently relocating

approximately 1 million population from the vulnerable locations to safe shelters including 825 special cyclone shelters • Code of Conduct for elections has been withdrawn from the districts likely to be affected • Under the partnership with UNICEF, OXFAM and Inter agency group are leading the GO-NGO coordination with the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) • UNICEF team is working with the respective departments to monitor evacuations and service delivery to ensure the Core Commitment for Children in Humanitarian Action As Odisha faces simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has requested

the Chief Election Commissioner to revoke the Model Code of Conduct and postpone elections in the Patkura assembly seat in Kendrapara, which is scheduled for May 19.

PM Narendra Modi who appreciated the efforts of Naveen Patnaik government in organising relief and rehabilitation, announced additional financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore in addition to the Rs 380 crore he had promised initially.

The state has demanded from the Centre a long-term package of Rs 17,000 crore to set up a disaster resilient energy and housing infrastructure.

Bhubaneswar city had lost most of its tree cover with massive trees uprooted.

Major parks like Biju Patnaik Park have suffered heavy damage to their green cover. Almost the entire power and communication infrastructure of the city has been destroyed, with uprooted electricity and telephone poles and smashed wires visible all around.

City residents have faced various difficulty of non-availability of cash with bank and ATM facilities almost paralysed. Now, people are remembering the time of De-monetization.

Extreme heat waves in Bhubaneswar is taking an additional toll on the people. People living in apartments like this correspondent have been suffering the worst with generator sets being the only means of supplying water to overhead tanks.

Generator set sellers are

making capital out of human misery, charging people up to Rs 1500 per hour.

Almost all mobile networks have been hit. People are crowding flyovers, especially in the city outskirts, to talk over mobile phones as connectivity at these spots is better. The pilgrim town of Puri has suffered extensive damage with roofs of thatched houses blown away. Almost every houses have lost their satellite TV antennas.

Every tourist spots in and around Puri and Bhubaneswar have sustained damaged with no tourists visiting them now. The famous Nandan Kanan Park has also been closed for tourists till May 13.

PM to review preparedness for Cyclone Fani Prime Minister Modi has chaired a highlevel meeting to review preparedness for Cyclone Fani. The meeting was attended by the Cabinet Secretary, the Principal Secretary to the PM, the Additional Principal Secretary to the PM, the Home Secretary, and other senior officials from the IMD, NDRF, NDMA and PMO etc.

The Prime Minister was briefed on the likely path of the cyclone, and the ongoing precautionary and preparatory measures being undertaken.

These include provision of adequate resources, deployment of teams from NDRF and the Armed Forces, arrangements to provide drinking water, and standby systems to restore power and telecom services.

After reviewing the emerging situation,

the Prime Minister instructed senior officers of the Union Government to maintain close coordination with officers of the affected States, to ensure preventive measures, and also to take effective steps for relief and rescue operations, as required.

Coast Guard deploys 4 ships, 34 disaster relief teams, as Cyclone Fani heads towards the eastern coast, the Indian Coast Guard has positioned 34 disaster relief teams at different spots and deployed four ships to handle any exigency Precautionary measure taken by the Odisha Government Odisha Chief Secretary A P Padhi warned people that remaining indoor during the entire landfall period is a must.“There may be a lull before the storm, but it will be the most dangerous phase and people should be extremely careful and keep indoor,” he said.

All shops, business establishments, private and government offices except those associated with relief and rescue operations will remain closed in 11 coastal districts as a precautionary measure.

The Indian Navy has deployed three naval ships so that it can launch rescue operation after the cyclone hit the coastline of Odisha.

“Indian naval ships Sahyadri, Ranvir and Kadmatt with relief material and medical teams have been deployed so that they can commence rescue operation as soon as the cyclone crosses the coast,” Navy spokesperson Capt.

D K Sharma said.

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INTERVIEW

ITI bullish on a strong growth year in the wake of various opportunities Brand Projections 2019 ITI Limited is a public sector undertaking in the telecommunications technology segment. Over the years ITI has been successful in creating its own brand identity. It has started assembling and manufacturing many products and each of these products speak for the brand that it stands for today. ITI completely believes in quality products that try to distinguish the ITI brand from the rest.

And that is the reason why it does not believe in shortcuts and strictly abides by the systems procedures.

ITI has reported a turnover of 2051 crores for 2018-19, while in 2017-18 it posted 1700 crores, therefore witnessing a 20% growth. The company is aiming at a growth 40- 50% in the next year.

ITI has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India for the year 2019-20. The MoU envisages to achieve turnover and profit for the company for the year 2019-20 by giving greater thrust towards manufacturing of telecommunication equipmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and other emerging technology products in the Broadband, Internet of things etc.

The MoU also focuses to drive the Make in India and Digital India initiatives of the Govt of India.

Major projects undertaken ITI has upgraded its infrastructure in all its plants and is today manufacturing diverse products that also includes smart cards. It understands that a lot of requirements are going to come from state governments like UP and Haryana and also from Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL) for smart energy meters and so it has started manufacturing them, which is also going to be the future product for ITI. As far as smart energy meter is concerned, ITI proudly states that it is one of the two companies that manufactures it in the country. IT will soon be in a position to manufacture them in huge quantities and deploy them on the field.

The smart energy meter is IoT enabled with a SIM card. ITI has received an order 32 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

of Rs 25 lakhs for these smart meters. As there will be a huge requirement coming, ITI has started setting up a facility in Bangalore too.

Another project that ITI is getting into is the BharatNet Phase II project on an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) model. It is also working on the Mahanet project under the Maharashtra Government and has taken up these projects on behalf of both the state governments and BSNL. ITI also works together with backend partners. As per requirement, ITI manufactures and supplies components, which includes solar panels, radio modems, OFC cables, ONT, OLT, which also happen to be its core competency products, while cabling and other such works are taken up by its back-end partners.

Given its strong focus into manufacturing, ITI is also acquiring a plant in Raebareli for manufacturing core cables. As far as productivity is concerned,

it has three lines in Raebarelli and one line in Palakkad.

Besides supplying products to BSNL, BBNL, EESL, ITI is also taking up the ASCON (Army Static Switch Communication Network) project, for which it is serving the Defence sector and is offering its end-to-end secrecy solution. The Army, the Air Force and the Navy have been together integrated into this network. ITI is also pitching these products for the paramilitary forces, Assam Rifles, Ministry of Home Affairs, NTRO (National Technical Research Organisation) and many more.

Another success story of ITI is that it has its own datacenter for which it has invested close to 200 crores. It has partnered with Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services who acts as a datacenter consultant for ITI. It is running as a Tier 3 plus datacenter and has a capacity for 250 -300 racks, which can further be expanded to 1000 racks. There are further plans to set up one more datacenter in Naini, Allahabad.

ITI also has the capability to manufacture and supply smart cards and has thus set up a smart card manufacturing facility, where it has put in four lines. Each line can manufacture 1000 cards per hour.

Its automated system can therefore churn out 1.5 crore cards per year. Getting an accreditation for manufacturing NPR cards or any smart cards is really difficult, but ITI believes that it has been fortunate to have received the accreditation by NPCI. ITI has also identified and tied up with many as 25 to 30 start-up companies and is in the process of tying up with many more. It tries to create a synergy between the start-up companies and ITI so that it is in a position to meet their requirement.

It already has a Start-up hub with hundred seats and its aim is to have 1000 more seats.

ITI provides them with facilities like WiFi, power, furniture and other such office facilities the start-up companies need to carry out their work. Additionally, if any start-up has any good ideas, ITI looks forward to backing it up and taking it forward.

INTERVIEW

Adoption of 5G brings opportunities for CommScope With a robust product portfolio in fibres, CommScope is helping its customers to improve their services. It also helps them to build networks for company deployments. The company sees growth opportunity in India with the growing LTE adoption. In a chat with VARINDIA, Navin Vohra, VP - Service Provider Sales, Asia Pacific, CommScope also talks about CommScope’s product portfolio, growth opportunities and roadmap CommScope sees the growth of LTE network in India as an opportunity in India. With its array of antenna solutions CommScope can help the service provider companies to improve their services.

“In India Reliance JIO is having a huge LTE network and that is putting pressure on other service provider networks in order to match the 4G footprint of Reliance JIO. A lot of expansion is happening and we have solutions for helping our operators customers to migrate. Not only India but also other Southeast Asian countries are migrating from 3G to 4G. We have antenna solutions that help operators, adding to this is backhaul of the base station traffic is mostly done through microwave antenna stations to help the operators with the microwave backhaul, the combining solutions is another area where we are leaders in the market space and we have specific models for specific operators,” says Navin.

The data center market is also bringing scope for the company. He further says, “Data centre is bringing a huge amount of opportunity for us in the enterprise business. We have specialized teams for sales working on some extremely large accounts as well as data centre market.”

5G

5G is bringing a lot of opportunities to CommScope both in India and globe. In India, Government of India initiatives like Digital India and Smart City are opening new avenues for the company.

“5G is bringing in a lot of tasks. There are initiatives from Government of India like Digital India, Smart Cities etc. The 5G technology will be the enabler to help out with the initiatives of government. In

the wireless space there are three major hurdles that an operator needs to pass. It is PBS, where P stands for power, B for backhaul, and S for site access. Whenever anyone is going to put a site, he has to take care of power then backhaul the site with microwave or fibre and third is to get the site access. These are three major hurdles that an operator needs to build a site. In the big corporate and enterprise networks within the enterprise campus to build 5G network is much simpler because they have the power in the campus, they have the right access to the site as they have the right control over that. One of the first applications for 5G is private network in the big corporate. It’s a huge opportunity in that space. The other areas which are not there in India but are there in other countries is big application as the fixed one to access net , an alternate to the cable TV infrastructure. It is a huge challenge for cable companies to give connections to homes. So one of the big opportunities 5G brings to the table is connecting these homes on wireless through 5G technology.

And that is talked about in 28 gigahertz band. CommScope has built an entire solution for fixed wireless connection in 28 gigahertz band as well as antennas,” explains Navin.

Service Portfolio As industry is progressing towards 5G, CommScope being a forerunner in this space have solutions to help build 5G. Countries like Japan, South Korea, China and Australia are early adaptors of 5G. “Everyone is aware that the current buzz in the industry is 5G and in this space we have achieved a latest team in India to leap from 4G to 5G. In the Asia Pacific market there is no early adoption of 5G but in Japan, South Korea, China and Australia have already announced about 5G. In the countries of Asia Pacific region we are going to beat early adaptors of 5G. We are the forerunners in the 5G space and we bring solutions to help building 5G. We have antenna solutions supporting the 3.5 gigahertz band, one of the bands that bare 5G in the Asia Pacific. In order to enable and to utilize that frequency band we have

NAVIN VOHRA VP - Service Provider Sales, Asia Pacific, CommScope solutions to support that. The second one is integrated active passive antenna, which has active components as well as traditional passive antenna in one single redom. And then we have number of inbuilt solutions and can help define 5G,” discusses Navin.

Roadmap Talking about the roadmap of the company, Navin reveals, “CommScope is providing wireless connectivity for example base station antennas, that are the antennas which grow on the towers to support 2G, 3G, 4G frequency bands and also support data and voice to go out to the subscribers and then from the subscribers back to the network. Micro wave antennas links to connect various base stations to the switching centers. That is an area where we provide solutions. Then in the wireless space we have inbuilding solutions both connecting within the building through something, which is Distributor Antenna System (DAS). We connect the building through passive DAS or active DAS. In one other connectivity solution we have slim time. So many frequency bands are there now, for example Airtel, who has multiple bands and multiple technologies like 2G, 3G and LTE. There is a lot of interference between the networks because of so many bands and technologies running, so filter solutions are very important in order to eliminate the interference. In the wireline connectivity space there are interesting products from CommScope. We have fibre to homes, it involves distribution of Fibres in terms of splitting it and then combining it.” www.spoindia.org May 2019 | 33

INTERVIEW

Syndicate Bank embarking upon Digital Transformation in a big way in 2019 BRAND PROJECTIONS 2019

Syndicate Bank is a robust Bank with a strong pan India presence.

As a brand, it is one of the oldest among the commercial Banks.

Digital Transformation is going to be the primary focus of Syndicate Bank this year. During the year, Project ‘Suparna’, which is the new version of CBS will be implemented throughout the country. The new Internet Banking and Mobile Banking software will be in place shortly. A digitally strong Syndicate Bank can penetrate the rural areas of the country more effectively than most of its competitors.

It has a very strong rural base with about 59% of its branches being in rural or semi urban areas. It has about 2700 ‘Bank Mitr’ who have been providing ‘Door Step Banking’ in rural areas much earlier than it was mandated by GOI vide RBI notification in Nov 2017. It can therefore easily satisfy all the three core components of Digital India - The development of secure and stable digital infrastructure, delivering government services digitally, and universal digital literacy.

TRANSFORMING CUSTOMER JOURNEY

The year 2019 is undoubtedly the year of buying experience. The customer today expects banking transactions to be smooth, seamless and swift--whether online or offline. This requires an outstanding end-to-end unified process. To facilitate this, Syndicate Bank has fast tracked both internal and customer facing digital technologies. The IT infrastructure has been comprehensively upgraded and made ready to move into market benchmarked technologies like private and public cloud, service oriented architecture, next generation data management and agile project management. The priority for the year 2019 will be to put in place a system which is a great process intelligence from end to end, keeping the customer at the center.

It aims to deliver a truly personalized experience. The CX will serve as the base of customer trust and loyalty. This automatically translates into enhanced business. Increased productivity and ‘Ease of Business’ should be the natural outcome. It has already set the ball rolling by posting a profit for the second successive quarter.

Today the customers are buying the experience, not just the product. This holds true for all businesses including Banking.

Convenience is the key word today. To stay in the game, it is required to tweak its offerings, reacting to the customer as swiftly as possible to make banking convenient for the customer, in order to stay one step ahead of its competitors. The Bank is investing greatly in technology. With the help of global consultants, it is already on the path of transforming itself into a world-class organization which would be capable of delivering the best in class. It is looking for new ways to stand out among the crowd. At the heart of this change are the digital enhancements that provide prospects and customers with genuinely happy experiences, driving greater satisfaction levels.

ACTION PLAN

Decades ago, branding was defined as a name, slogan, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these elements that distinguish one company, product or service from another.

34 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

MRUTYUNJAY MAHAPATRA MD & CEO Syndicate Bank

Today branding is more complex and even more important. It is not just about getting the target market to select you over the competition; it is also about retaining them. Syndicate Bank is a brand that is now 94 years old. It has had a glorious past, though it did lose some sheen in the past years, but it is now definitely metamorphosing into a new and improved version of itself. It shall definitely be occupying a lot more space in media in the current year – be it print, audio or social media and eventually in the minds of the people.

COMMITMENT TO DIGITAL INDIA AND SWACHH BHARAT MISSION

Digital India is all about ensuring that the Government‘s services are made available to citizens across the country, electronically by making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology. The transformations it has now embarked upon at Syndicate Bank is going to lead it to an entirely different and enhanced level of effectiveness – • Its Digital transformation, with the able support of a leading global consultant will be helping the bank to use digital technology to solve traditional problems.

• The implementation of the new version of CBS is slated to be complete by the year end.

• Internet banking and Mobile banking software are being upgraded.

• Analytics capability through Analytics Centre of Excellence is slated to be established.

• Data Lake, TMO, ecommerce enablement and rapid ramp up of ATM and digital usage is being focused upon.

Syndicate Bank also plans to reach out to the customers in a major way. All this and much more in the pipeline puts the bank in a position, which is in sync with the mission Digital India.

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ROUND ABOUT

Day Dreaming 5G Technology gazing is one of my favorite hobbies. It is something like day dreaming. I would recommend to all those who do not have any idle time except their office or business work, to indulge in this game, whatever time that they can extract from their busy schedules. I can assure that they will not be disappointed; it will broaden their horizons of thinking and imagination. I can assure you that it would help you to travel miles away from where you are to a new world of fantasy and innocent delights.

I often visualize the impossible: could I travel to the US in one hour, using a space shuttle, which can go faster than light or sound through the outer space; my walking in Mars, chatting with an aliens through mono syllables, etc. Those dreams may have different subjects, fantasies but inevitable focus is on technology.

One day, while day dreaming a strange thought occurred to me. Why should I think about the impossible that may or may not happen in my life time? Why shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t I dream about something that is going to unfold any time either this month, year or at the most by early next year?

Thought about 5G came to me not as a dream but mostly driven by a feeling that I should know more about that innovative platform, which is going to be a reality any time from now.

More than the dream content, 5G has let loose both corporate and trade wars.

Those who follow technology tractions would vouch for the huge investments that corporations across the world are making to get the first mover advantage in 5G space. Some of them may succeed in their attempts and an equal number of them would come as a cropper in the race. That is part of the game in a highly competitive technology landscape.

5G brings three innovative aspects: greater speed to move more data, better responsive capacity and ability to connect with more devices and 36 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

equipments. There is always a lag between introduction of one generation and unfolding of its utilities. Video calls using LTE platforms came around in 2013 only. I believe that the last word on 4G is still not spoken. There can be many more applications on the anvil. That way, I believe all Gs are an investment for the next decades. Every succeeding application is an improvement of the earlier one, an accumulated knowledge, a disruption that can be highly beneficial to the society.

5G with its high speed, responsiveness and capacity to support a wide range of applications and technologies can script a paradigm shift. 5G mobile download speed is around 50 times faster than existing 4G LTE technology.

It can accommodate tens of billions of connected devices, smart objects and embedded sensors, thereby giving a critical push to the Internet of Things (IoTs).

A number of companies are vigorously engaged in the development and testing of 5G equipments. One among them is Ericsson, a Swedish telecommunication equipment and services company. The company is developing 5G hardware and undertaking field trials and research programs with mobile operators around the world. Yet another company in the fray is Nokia Corporations, a Finnish telecommunications equipment and data networking company. Nokia has entered advanced testing phases on new 5G radio access products for eventual deployment by mobile operators around the world.

Qualcomm Inc. is another company heavily into developing 5G. The chip maker, some say is ahead of other companies in chip making for 5G. Sprint is another Corporation readying itself to the challenge. Its 5G will be on the 2.5GHz band, and will launch its network first in four cities in May, followed by five more in June in the US. Another competitor is T-Mobile, which is building a nation-wide 5G network on

the 600MHz and 28GHz bands starting some point in 2019, with full national coverage by 2020. That way, there is no dearth of research and development on 5G. More and more companies are getting onto the bandwagon to get a pie from the exponential market, 5G will unleash.

For a while, assume a world when Uber, Ola and their pedigrees will come out with a driverless car which runs on a smart road. One need not have a driver, a traffic police to regulate the traffic, signals at cross roads, the whole paraphernalia of vehicle inspectors, mechanics, workshops etc. The whole gamut of activities will be undertaken by machine since one vehicle can intelligently connect with billions of sensors fixed in other vehicles, roads, lamp posts and what have you. Also, visualize a situation, when you can intent from a centralized system or an aggregator the services of an assistant to help you in the household work. A robot can knock at your door in ten minutes, which will make you the best culinary delight of your choice and can act as your bartender and many other things. At the end of the day, one may yearn to see a human being coming to your rescue or nurse you when you are sick, give you tender care when you really need that care. Yes, I can day dream about that situation. You may also do the same.

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MOVEMENTS NSA Ajit Doval given the rank of a cabinet minister

NATIONAL Security Adviser (NSA), Ajit Doval, who is credited with perfectly strategizing the surgical trikes of 2016 and then the Balakot airstrikes in Pakistan on February 26 this year, has been elevated to the rank of a Union cabinet minister, the newlyinstalled Modi Sarkar-2 announced on today (Monday). NSA is usually given the rank of a MoS rank and is required to co-ordinate with various securityrelated ministries and agencies, but it is unprecedented that an NSA is bestowed with the rank of a cabinet minister.

Doval, who has been the country’s NSA since 2014, will continue for another five years.

Alok Kumar Mehta joins as New Director (Commercial) of NMDC

Alok Kumar Mehta has assumed charge today on 1st June 2019 as Director (Commercial) of NMDC Limited, a Schedule 'A' Government of India Enterprise, with Navratna Status, under the Ministry of Steel.

Alok Kumar Mehta, a Graduate in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Raipur, with more than 35 years of experience in Iron ore mining, Iron & Steel Industry and Copper Industry in India and abroad. He started his career with Hindustan Copper Limited in July 1983 and later joined in Saurastra Chemical, Porbandar in 1993. He has distinction of having exposure at both Private and Government Sector including overseas experience.

MV Rajasekar assume charge as Director (Mining and Construction) at BEML

M.V. Rajasekar has assumed charge as Director (Mining & Construction) and member of the board of BEML Limited, on Saturday 1st June 2019.

Prior to assuming charge, he was Executive Director and Marketing Head of Mining & Construction Business, 38 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

BEML. He succeeded B R Viswanatha who retired from services on account of superannuation.

Rajasekar is graduate in Metallurgical Engineering from VNIT, Nagpur and holds a post graduate degree (M. Tech) in Welding Engineering from IIT Chennai and done his MS in Technology Management from Germany.

P. Radhakrishna assumes charge as BDL Director

P. Radhakrishna has assumed charge as Director (Production) of Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), a PSU under the Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India on 1st June 2019.

Prior to his new appointment, Radhakrishna served as a General Manager in the Bhanur Unit of BDL where he played a key role in establishing the production line for Konkurs, Konkurs – M and Invar AntiTank Guided Missiles, Launcher & Rifles ensuring safe operations with an objective of reaching set targets.

An M. Tech. in Industrial Engineering and Management from JNTU, Hyderabad and a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Nagarjuna University in Andhra Pradesh, Radhakrishna holds rich experience,spanning over 32 years, in various fields of Missile Production.

Deepak Kashyap assumes charge as CVO POWERGRID

Deepak Kashyap has assumed charge of the post of Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) in Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (POWERGRID). He is a graduate in English (Hons.) from Patna University and a 1986 batch officer of Indian Railway Traffic Service.

He has held various key posts in and outside Railways such as CVO, BSNL, DRM, South Eastern Railway, Ranchi, Chief Commercial Manager/General, Northern Railway, Member and Rail Land Development Authority and Director, Central Vigilance Commission.

Having varied experience in general administration, establishment, vigilance, operations, revenue, tendering and allied

disciplines, he is also credited with conceptualizing and commissioning Indian Railways’ popular onboard magazine 'Rail Bandhu'.

P.M. Prasad assumes additional charge as Dir. Tech of BCCL

P.M. Prasad, Director (Technical/ Project & Planning) of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL), has assumed additional charge of Director (Technical) of Coal India Limited (CIL)'s subsidiary Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) Thursday on 9th May 2019. Prior to Prasad, K. K. Mishra was holding the baton of this board level post. Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has also recommended the name of Prasad for the post of Chairman-cumManaging Director (CMD) of BCCL last month.

Prasad had assumed his charge as a Director (Technical/Project and Planning), NCL in February last year.

N. N. Thakur assumes additional charge of Director (Finance) of CCL

N.N. Thakur, Director (Finance) of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) has assumed additional charge of Director (Finance) of Coal India subsidiary Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) on 3rd May. He has been entrusted with this responsibility after superannuation of D.K. Ghosh, the present incumbent.

Thakur had also assumed the additional charge of Director (Personnel), NCL in March this year and with addition of the new responsibility, he is presently serving as Director (Finance) of NCL and CCL and Director (Personnel), NCL. Thakur had assumed the charge as Director (Finance) of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) in June last year. Prior to this Thakur was working as General Manager (Finance) in Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI) before assuming this charge.

After completing ICWA in year 1986, he started his career in Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in the same year.

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RNI No.: DELENG/2016/69058 Printing Date 27 & 28

40 | May 2019 www.spoindia.org

Reg. No.: DL-SW-1/4197/17-19

40 pages including cover

Date of Posting Date 29 & 30 Every Month