Sadagopan’s Weekly Column on IT*** March 17-31, 2024

Science, Technology, Innovation and Higher Education

• ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) successfully conducted the Pushpak Reusable Landing Vehicle (RLV) LEX 02 landing experiment at the Aeronautical Test Range in Chitradurga in Karnataka (22^nd March 2024)
• Indigenously developed (HAL made) series fighter LCA Tejas MKA 1 fighter aircraft made its maiden flight in Bangalore (28^th March 2024)
• Indian stock exchanges start same day transaction settlement, popularly known as T+0 scheme of settlements, setting a new trend globally; as of today most exchanges follow T+1 or T+2 (28^th March 2024)
• As per UGC, NET will be used by all Institutions for PhD Admissions from June 2024; hopefully, this will avoid multiple examinations to be taken by prospective PhD students (28^th March 2024)

Key Developments & Milestones

• Microsoft & OpenAI announce an investment of up to $ 100 Billion in the next generation supercomputer center Stargate (30^th March 2024)
• NVIDIA announces the world’s most powerful chip Blackwell – packed with 208 Billion transistors! (18^th March 2024)
• Dates announced for the General Elections 2024 – Apr 19^th, 26^th; May 7^th, 13^th, 20^th and 25^th; and, June 1^st; Results on June 4^th 2024
• General Elections 2024 will have 98 Crore Voters (including 82 Lakhs voters who are 85+ age!); use 55 Lakhs EVMS (Electronic Voting Machines) located in 10.5 Lakhs poll booths!
• 133 killed in Moscow Concert Hall incident incident (22^nd March 2024)

Market

• India’s stock market indices BSE and NSE closed at 73,651 and 22,326 respectively on the last day of the financial year; the indices gained 27% and 30% respectively, in the
  

  financial year 2023-24 ( 28^th March 2024)

Indian Tech Companies

• Wipro GE Healthcare to invest Rs 8,000 Cr ($ 1 Billion) in India (27^th March 2024)

People

• Pavan Davuluri, an IITM Alumnus, took charge as the Head of the merged Divisions within Microsoft, namely, MS Windows and Surface Division (28^th March 2024)
• IIT-KGP Alum and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest is intriguing; the very man who fought for the removal of corruption getting accused of corruption! (21^st March 2024)
• Nobel Laureate and a noted Behavioural economist Prof Daniel Kahneman, aged 90, who was teaching at UC Berkeley till 1994 died on 27^th March 2024

Interesting Applications & Apps

• IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India) approved the launch of Bima Sugam an online market place for all the players in the Insurance ecosystem (30^th March 2024)
• Ministries in the Government of India start using AI under AI Mission (26^th March 2024)
• GeM (Government e-Marketplace) procurement crossed Rs 4 Lakh Crores in the FY 2023-24, double the amount it did in FY 2022-23 (28^th March 2024)

Interesting Numbers

• Passenger car sales in India touch a new high of more than 4 Million in FY 2023-24 (23^rd March 2024)
• Indian Rupee closed at 38 against USD (29^th March 2024)
• India’s forex reserves at record high value of $ 642.5 Billion (29^th March 2024)

*** Due to my extensive travel this column captures the developments in two weeks!

Sadagopan’s Weekly Column on IT March 11-16, 2024

Science, Technology, Innovation and Higher Education Institutions

• Indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with MIRV (Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicle) technology successful tested as part of Mission Divyastra (11^th March 2024)
• NEET-UG received 25 Lakhs applications for the 2024 examination, a new record (10^th March 2024)
• IIT Bombay demonstrates a very cost-effective (up to times less cost compared to others) NexCar 19 Cancer Therapy (11^th March 2024)

Interesting Developments & Milestones

• Prime Minster Modi launched three semiconductor manufacturing plants (2 in Gujarat and one in Assam) (13^th March 2024)
•  
• Government of India mulls Deep Tech fund with up to Rs 1 Trillion (11^th March 2024)
• Government of India signed a trade pact with four-nation European Free Trade Association (EFTA), an intergovernmental grouping of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland (10^th March 2024)
•  
• Election Commission sets date (16^th March) & time (3 PM) to announce general election schedule; code of conduct to be in place immediately after the announcement (15^th March 2024)
•  
• European Union’s Parliament approves a comprehensive AI Policy (15^th March 2024)
•  
• Delhi International Airport reaches 100 Million passenger capacity with the expansion of its Terminal 1(11^th March 2024)
• Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru has been recognised as the best airport at arrivals globally by the Airports Council International’s (ACI) Airport Service Quality Awards 2023. (11^th March 2024)

Market

• India’s stock market index Sensex fell from 1,100 points in a day in a day (14^th March 2024)

Indian Tech Companies

• IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw launched the4 TBPS Nivetti IP/MPLS Router, said to be the fastest IP Router that runs on indigenously developed Nivetti OS, targeting India’s Defence establishments (10^th March 2024)

 People

• Election Commissioner Arun Goel quits; two new Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu appointed, all in the week ((11^th to 15^th March 2024)

Start-up Scene

• VR Govindarajan founded Fintech start-up Perfios turns Unicorn, the second for the year 2024 (13^th March 2024)
• Byju’s shuts down all offices, except the Head Office; asks 14,000 employees to work from home (12^th March 2024)

 

Sadagopan’s Weekly Column on IT – March 3-10, 2024

Science, Technology, Innovation and Higher Education Institutions

• Government of India announces the ambitious India AI Mission with Rs 10,372 Cr commitment over the next 5 years (7^th March 2024)
• India’s No 1 Institute IISc (Indian Institute of Science) and the payment systems innovator NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) – of UPI fame – signed a partnership agreement for research collaboration and the establishment of a CoE (Center of Excellence) in Blockchain (7^th March 2024)

Interesting Developments & Milestones

• Prime Minister Modi inaugurated India’s first under-river Metro train track in Kolkata (8 km long tunnel connecting Howrah Maidan and Esplanade) under the iconic Hooghly river (6^th March 2024).
• Central Government announced a 4% hike in Dearness Allowance (7^th March 2024)

Markets

• India’s stock market index Sensex crossed 74,000 for the first time (7^th March 2024)

Indian Tech Companies

• HCL invests Rs 166 Cr in EduTech EI (7^th March 2024)

Global Tech companies in India

• Apple output of iPhone from India crossed $ 10 Billion in 10 months (April 2023 to January 2024) (from $ 7 Billion last year) (7^th March 2024)
• Salesforce adds 1,000 people in India, a much-needed relief after much gloom on job front over the past several months (7^th March 2024)
• Accenture to invest $ 1 Billion (over 3 years) in Learn Vantage; acquired Udacity (6^th March 2024)

People

• Srinivasan Swamy, of R K Swamy Ltd, was conferred with the coveted IAA Golden Compass Award, the first time for an Indian Advertising professional (8^th March 2024)
• Former Infosys Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murty nominated to the Rajya Sabha as a Member of the Indian Parliament (8^th March 2024)

Interesting Applications & Apps

• Bangalore-based data cooperative NGO Karya to help Karnataka with Q&A bot for the management of Tuberculosis (7^th March 2024)
• Facebook, Instagram suffered outage for several hours (5^th March 2024)

The week that was – 19-25 February 2024

Science, Technology, Innovation and Higher Education Institutions

• INSAT 3DS meteorological satellite successfully launched by ISRO (17^th February 2024)
• Intuitive Machines (America’s private astronautics company) landed its unmanned spacecraft Odyessus on the Moon after 50 years of NASA landing in 1972 (23^rd February 2024)
• JEE (Main) results out; with record attendance there were 23 candidates with 100 percentile! (13^th February 2024)

Interesting Developments & Milestones

• Kashmir gets its first electric train (48 KM long line from Banihal to Sangaldhan) (17^th February 2024)

Market

• Wipro acquired InsureTech company Aggne for $ 66 Million (13^th February 2024)

Global Tech companies in India

• NOKIA cuts 250 jobs in India (21^st February 2024)

People

• Uber CEO Dara Khosroshahi visits India; meets several leaders including Tata Chairman N Chandra and Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani (21^st February 2024)
• Renowned legal luminary Fali Nariman passed away (21^st February 2024)
• Ex Lok Sabha Speaker and Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi passed away (23^rd February 2024)

Start-up Scene

• Investors voted for the ouster of EduTech Byju’s CEO Byju Raveendran in the EGM held on 23^rd February 2024

Interesting Applications & Apps

• OpenAI’s Sora platform creates video from text; the 60-sec video launched last week is stunning indeed (21^st February 2024)

Interesting numbers

• Nvidia market cap surged to $ 1.97 Trillion – the 4^th in the Top 10 after Aramco, Microsoft and Apple; its Data Center chip H-100 alone added $ 1 Trillion to its market value (21^st February 2024)
• Reliance market cap touches Rs 20 Lakh Cr ($ 250 Billion) first time for an Indian company (13^th February 2024)
• Akshaya Patra delivered its 4 Billionth meal to children around the world; starting in the year 2,000 Akshaya Patra crossed the milestone of 1 Billion in 2012, 2 Billion in 2016 and 3 Billion in 2019; has 9,000 employees, 72 kitchens in 17 States / 2 Union Territories (23^rd February 2024)

 

 

 

The week that was : 12 -18 February 2024

Important developments/milestones

• The first large-scale Swaminarayan temple in Middle East was opened by PM Modi at Abu Dhabi (14^th February 2024)
• Japan moves into economic recession and slipped to No 4 position in GDP; Germany takes the 3^rd position (15^th February 2024)
• In the year long period (June-July in 2022-23), 113,304 Indian students took GRE exam compared to 97,676 US students, and, 57,769 Chinese students took the exam, for the first time in history (15^th February 2024) 

Science, Technology, Innovation and Higher Education Institutions

• BITS announced the setting up of BITS Design School in Mumbai and collaborates with RMIT Australia (14^th February 2024)

People

• In a diplomatic victory, eight Indian Navy personnel were released by Qatar government after months of negotiations (14^th February 2024)
• Microsoft Chairman Satya Nadella visited India (7^th & 8th February 2024)

Global Tech Companies In India

• Cisco lays off 4,000 professionals (15^th February 2024)

Interesting Applications & Apps

• India’s UPI (Universal Payment Interface) goes to Sri Lanka and Mauritius (12^th February 2024)

 

The week that was – 5-11 February 2024

Science, Technology, Innovation and Higher Education Institutions

• Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act comes into force (5^th February 2024)
• IIM Sambalpur Campus and NIT Goa campus were dedicated to the Nation by Prime Minister Modi (6^th February 2024)

People

• Former Prime Ministers Narasimha Rao and Charan Singh and the well-known Agricultural Scientist Dr M S Swaminathan – considered the father of India’s green revolution – were conferred the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (9^th February 2024)
• 17-year old Bangalore girl Sia Godika wins $ 400,000 Breakthrough Junior Challenge 2023, the international science video competition (6^th February 2024
• Five Indian artistes
  • Tabla player Zakir Hussain
  • Flute player Rakesh Chaurasia
  • Singer Shankar Mahadevan
  • Violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan
  • Percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram

Won Grammy Award (6^th February 2024)

 

 

IT in the week of 29th January – 4th February 2024

 Important developments/milestones

• Union Interim Budget (technically a Vote on Account) 2024, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman had no surprises; all tax items remained untouched; social sector saw significant increase in budget outlay; naturally, it was well-received by all sections of the Society (1^st Feb 20224)

Science, Technology, Innovation and Higher Education Institutions

• Union Interim Budget talks of Rs 100,000 Crores corpus fund to provide interest-free loan up to 50 years to promote private sector R & D (1^st February 2024)
• Indian Institute of Technology, Madras gets an endowment grant of Rs 110 Cr from Sunil Wadhwani to set up a School for Data Science & Artificial Intelligence Centre (30^th January 2024)
• With 6004 students, Karnataka is home to the largest number of international students in India (46,878 students from 170 countries), according to Times of India Report (5^th February 2024)

Global Tech Companies in India

• Apple iPhone shipments from India crossed 10 million in the year 2023 (4^th February 2024)
• WISTRON announced an investment of Rs 1,500 Cr in a new plant in Bangalore to assemble laptops (4^th February 2024)

Indian Tech Companies

• TCS bags a $ 2.5 Billion 15-year contract (the largest ever deal) from UK’s Insurance major Aviva (29^th January 2024)
• Wipro to layoff hundreds of middle-level staff (4^th February 2024)
• PayTM stopped by Reserve Bank of India to operate any services (1^st February 2024)

 People

• Former Deputy Prime Minister and BJP leader LK Advani conferred the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (3^rd February 2024)
• Elon Musk’s Neuralink – an embedded chip in human brain – was first installed on a human being (31^st January 2024)

Start-up Scene

• EduTech start-up Byju’s, that was once the largest valued Unicorn with $ 22 Billion valuation, saw its value eroding by 99% to a mere $ 200 million (29^th January 2024)

Interesting Applications / Apps

UPI goes to France; India’s NPCI and French Lyra sign a partnership agreement (2^nd February 2024)

The week that was – 22-28, January 2024

News highlight of the week

• In the grand opening of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya history was made (22^nd January 2024)

 Important developments/milestones

• 75^th Republic Day was celebrated; nari shakti was on display in every aspect, the choice of the displays, the themes, and the participants (26^th January 2024)
• Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards were announced (26^th January 2024)

 

• 2024 Parliamentary Elections will have 960 million voters and the Election Commission will deploy more than 15 million personnel; likely to start around the 14^th of April, though a formal notification will happen only in February (26^th January 2024)

 

• Starting with Ayodhya 30 cities to be developed as “beggar free cities (26^th January 2024)

Science, Technology, Innovation and Higher Education Institutions

• More than 75,000 Patents issued by India Patent Office in the first ten months of the year 2023-24; compare this to 4,227 Patents issued in the year 2013-14!

 

• NAAC moves to binary accreditation (Accredited or Non-accredited) in place of Grades (A++ to D) (29^th January 2024)
• ACM Fellows 2023 announced; Manik Varma of Microsoft India one of the 68 Fellows (24^th January 2024)
• National Quantum Mission set to take off (20^th January 2024)
• The first batch of 22 VAIBHAV Fellows (Indian diaspora scientists around the world) announced by DST (23^rd January 2024)
• Indian Institute of Science signs MoU with GE Healthcare for R & D in health technology (23^rd January 2024)

Markets

• India with $ 4.3 trillion market capitalization replaces Hong Kong as the 4^th most valued country in the world (24^th January 2024)
• Sony calling off the merger of its India division valued at $ 10 billion with Zee (24^th January 2024)

Global Tech Companies in India

• SAP to rationalize 8,000 jobs (24^th January 2024)

Indian Tech Companies

• Tata & Airbus sign a deal to manufacture helicopters (26^th January 2024)

People

• 90 Patent holders were invited for the Republic Day Parade (26^th January 2024)
• Champion of the backward classes Karpoori Thakur was awarded the Bharat Ratna Award, the highest civilian award posthumously (25^th January 2024)
• The 2024 Padma Awards were given to 132 people, including 30 women. The awards include 5 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan, and 110 Padma Shri; this includes Dr Sitaram Jindal (Jindal Trust) and Prof MK Sridhar (Key person in NEP Committee) (25^th January 2024)
• Nitish Kumar joins NDA, takes oath as Bihar Chief Minister for the 9^th time
• Flipkart co-founder IIT Delhi Alumnus Binny Bansal resigns from FlipKart Board; pursuing his new start-up OppDoor full time (27^th January 2024)
• Mysore born Arun Yogiraj sculpted the idol of Balak Ram in Ayodhya selected for installation in Ayodhya Temple on 22^nd January 2024

Start-up Scene

• Bangalore-based AI Start-up krutrim founded by Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal became the first Unicorn of 2024 and the first AI Unicorn from India (27^th January 2024)

 

#RamMandir #Ayodhya

#PadmaAwards #PadmaShri #BharatRatna #75thRepublicDay

#krutrim #ola #BhavishAggarwal

#ArunYogiraj

#flipKart #BinnyBansal

#NitishKumar #BiharCM #ParliamentaryElections2024

#SitaramJindal #profMKsridhar

#patent

#tata #Airbus #SAP #SONY #Zee #GEHealthCare

#HongKong

#India #VAIBHAVFellows #NationalQuantumMission

#IndianInstituteOfScience #NAAC

#ACMFellows2023 #ManikVarma

IT in the week of 15-21 January 2024

Important developments/milestones

• The World Economic Forum (15-19 January 2024) at Davos had a special focus on AI Opportunities and challenges

Markets

• BSE index Sensex touched 73,000 and NSE Index NIFTY touched 22,000 this week

Products

Samsung launched its AI-powered smartphone Galaxy 24 and Galaxy 24 Ultra priced at Rs 79,999 and Rs 129,999 respectively in India; has a record booking of 250,000 within three days of the launch (17^th January 2024)

Global Tech Companies in India

• Apple overtook Samsung as the No. 1 Smartphone manufacturer globally, after a 12-year run (19^th January 2024)
• Apple opened its 15-storied green building to accommodate 1,200 staff in the central part of Bangalore (17^th January 2024)

Indian Tech Companies

• Five of the Top 10 Global IT Services brands are from India
  • TCS (2)
  • Infosys (3)
  • Cognizant (7)
  • HCL (8)
  • Wipro (9)
• Foxconn ties up with HCL for semiconductor assembly (17^th January 2024)

People

• Mysore boy Arun Yogiraj sculpted the idol of Sri Ram selected for installation in Ayodhya Temple on 22^nd January 2024

Start-up Scene

• Bangalore-based Space Tech start-up Pixxel launched a 30,000 sq ft facility in Bangalore (15^th January 2024)

IT in the week of 8-14 January 2024

Science & Technology, Research, Higher Education

• Australia’s Deakin University commenced its first International campus with 25,00 square feet of space in GIFT City (near Ahmedabad), starting with PG Courses in Cybersecurity and Analytics; one of the first foreign Universities in India (10^th January 2024)

Important developments/milestones

• The annual Consumer Electronics Show 2024 (9-12 January 2024) had AI written all over; the cool gadgets showcased include a smart mattress, a baby cry translator, and Anura Magic mirror!

• ONGC started its “first oil production” from its KG Basin on the Kakinada coast in Andhra Pradesh (7^th January 2024)

• Foreign relations between India and Maldives took a nosedive; derogatory comments by Maldivian Ministers on Indian Prime Minister Modi writing about the beauty of Lakshadweep led to a call for boycotting Maldives and promoting Lakshadweep tourism (8^th January 2024)

• New cases of COVID-19 patients in Karnataka went down from 279 in the first week of January to 113 in the second week of January 2024

Markets

• In a big-ticket acquisition, HPE announced its decision to acquire Juniper Networks (started by Pradeep Sindhu, an IIT Kanpur Alum in 1996) for $ 14 Billion (9^th January 2024)
• Bangalore-based cloud security firm Pingsafe gets acquired by US-based SentinelOne for $ 100 Million (10^th January 2024)
• Pune-based Nihilent had an interesting turn; its Founder L C Singh bought back a controlling stake from NTT Data (11^th January 2024)

Global Tech Companies in India

• Microsoft became the world’s most valued company (overtaking Apple) with a market value of 875 trillion (11^th January 2024)
• US-based First Solar commences its operations in India; the Chennai facility with a $ 700 Million investment will have an annual capacity of 3.3 Gigawatts (11^th January 2024)
• Google lays off hundreds of employees in its hardware, voice assistant, and engineering divisions; this follows 12,000 job cuts in 2023; and warns of more layoffs coming (12^th January 2024)

 Indian Tech Companies

• Adani Defence & Aerospace (ADA) – an Adani company in partnership with Israeli firm Elbit, delivered its first drone – Drishti 10 – with 450 KG Payload – to the Indian Navy (11^th January 2024)
• Infosys acquired Bangalore-based InSemi, a semiconductor design company, for Rs 280 Crores (11^th January 2024)

 

• Indian IT Services companies announced their quarter (October – December 2023) results in the week.

 

	Turnover (Crores)	Net Profit (Croes)
TCS	60,583	11,058
Infosys	38,821	6,106
Wipro	22,205	2,694
HCL	28,815	4,351

 

• For the first time, headcount in the four IT companies (TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL) declined by 50,875 in the year 2023 (23^rd January 2024)

 Infrastructure

• Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, a 21.8 KM long 6-lane highway Sea bridge connecting Mumbai with Navi Mumbai, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi (12^th January 2024