Aadhaar opens new revenue streams for Indian IT

MUMBAI: Information technology companies are tapping into a lucrative opportunity opened up by the government's vote-catching scheme to transfer cash directly to beneficiaries. With the Aadhaar unique identity number at its core, the scheme is heavily dependent on banks, which in turn are relying on technology firms to implement the programme. 

More than half of India's rural population still has little or limited access to banking services, even though the government has been pushing banks to expand beyond cities and towns since 2006. Part of the problem was that banks found it financially unsustainable to set up accounts for rural citizens because of the limited transactions and money in such accounts. But the direct transfer scheme now addresses some of those concerns. 

"With direct benefit transfer, there will be a float, there will be transactions and possible products will take off. It is beginning to start happening," said HCL Infosystems chief executive officer Harsh Chitale. He estimated his revenues projects related to financial inclusion were currently between Rs 25 and 30 crore, but expects the transaction fees paid out on direct transfer to create a multi-thousand-crore banking processing market. 

The Indian market with opportunitiese-governance, financial inclusion and the plan to connectIndian villages to a broadband network is creating more opportunities for IT firms, currently struggling with weak demand in its main markets and the increasing probability of restrictive visa laws in the US. 

HCL Infosystems is gunning for a share of the financial inclusion-related business and has tied up with 26 banks to provide technology such as handheld devices that banking representatives will carry to ensure last-mile connectivity in villages. Wipro, India's third largest IT services provider, is working with banks to implement core banking solutions and creating software interfaces to manage such handheld devices, said Anuj Vaid of Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East arm.

Technology market researcher Gartner estimated that Indian financial services companies will spend approximately Rs 42,200 crore on IT products and services this year, a 13% increase over 2012. Gartner attributed part of the rise to the Reserve Bank of India's push for financial inclusion. "We do see this as the biggest opportunity for us," said Rajashekara Maiya, who is the lead product manager for Infosys' banking platform Finacle. "Not just in India because the potential for these services is there in some countries in southeast Asia and Africa." 

Maiya said Infosys' technology is being used by more than half the regional rural banks in the country. The company is also working with India Post to connect and manage more than 1,30,000 handheld devices used by rural postal workers for distribution of benefits under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and to process money orders. 

Software services companies are also making it easier for banks by offering flexible payment models. Infosys, for instance, lets banks pay for its software based on the number of branches, number of customers, number of accounts or number of transactions and allows banks to buy some features as a utility, and paid for on the basis of usage. HCL Infosystems is also offering similar flexible payment options. 

Smaller companies are also increasingly targeting this space. Prepaid payment card processor ElectraCard Services said it already working with 'several' banks to provide prepaid cards tied to the accounts which can be used at micro-ATMs. Atos India, the Indian unit of a French IT solutions provider, is pitching its 'voice biometric' solution to help banks easily validate the authentication of new customers through voice. Atos is in early talks with five banks, India CEO Milind Kamat told ET. But as with any new market, there are significant challenges for technology providers. 

"If you look at it a technology perspective, it is important to emphasise that this is not just about software. The technology and service providers will have to design products scratch. If they just tweak existing products to fit this market, they will fail," said Piyush Singh, managing director of Accenture's Financial Services Group.

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Facebook to unveil "big idea" at mystery event

SAN FRANCISCO: A mysterious Facebook event set for Thursday has sparked buzz that the leading social network could be adding video to Instagram smartphone picture-sharing service. The leading social network invited the media to its headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of Menlo Park"a small team has been working on a big idea," but remained hush about what will be unveiled.

Online speculation at technology news website TechCrunch and elsewhere has included the possibility that Instagram will start letting people share video snippets in a style similar to a hit Vine app launched by Twitter in January.

Perpetually looping videos clips up to six seconds each can be shared using Vine or easily embedded in "tweets" fired off at the globally popular messaging service Twitter.

Twitter in December added Instagram-style smartphone photo sharing features after the Facebook-owned service made it impossible for Internet users to integrate its images into tweets.

Previously, Instagram pictures shared in messages tweeted smartphones could be viewed unaltered at Twitter.

Facebook acquired Instagram last year. The original price was pegged at $1 billion but the final value was less because of a decline in the social network's share price.

Other speculation on the Thursday event has included talk that the social network might launch an RSS reader to lure fans of a similar service that Google is shutting down at the end of this month.

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Indian IT: 3 things that may hit hiring

In under two years, 23-year-old Laveen Bakshi has experienced a wide range of emotions in his stillborn career in information technology. For the electronics and communications engineer The Maharaja Suratmal Institute of Technology, Delhi, the initial thrill of getting an offer letter HCL Technologies, India's number four software exporter, has now given way to dejection, desperation and anger after a near two-year wait for a joining date. 

At least 6,000 others are in the middle of such frustrating waits to join HCL and other IT companies. Once a magnet for skilled manpower, especially engineers, IT companies are now hiring less the sector hired 200,000 people last year, 50,000 less than the previous 12 months, according to industry body Nasscom. 

A global slowdown and a slow-to-change local industry have crimped hiring, and with it, the aspirational tag long enjoyed by this sector. "A feeling of disgust has replaced our previous feeling of pride," says Bakshi. Having waited for months for a joining date, he has also discovered that hiring plans for the 2013 batch are afoot; and as a graduate the previous year, he's out in the cold. HCL TechnologiesBSE -0.25 % didn't make its executives available for an interview, despite repeated requests. 

Over the past two decades, the IT industry has been billed as an employer of choice, on account of handsome salary packages, perks such as stock options and the opportunity to work at client sites worldwide. 

The sector has also been a marker on other HR fronts: it has led in terms of training its employees to be industry-ready (Infosys invests Rs 2.5 lakh and 16 weeks in classroom sessions per employee), scientifically planned career development programmes and was the most aggressive user of stock options to create employee wealth. 

Infosys, for example, has distributed over Rs 50,000 crore in ESOPs over the past 15 years. "Last decade, 25% ofjobs created in India were in IT and BPO," says Pramod Bhasin, non-executive vice-chairman of BPO firm Genpact and past chairman of Nasscom. However, them has now begun to fade. 

Losing numbers

Deepak Mittal spent seven years working with outsourcing companies such as L&T Infotech, Cognizant and Capgemini before moving to a medical devices maker as a business analyst. "In this time, the IT industry has gone focusing on technologies to focusing on verticals," he says. 

While they managed to focus on clients in sectors such as financial services or manufacturing, they did so at a cost employees who had specific technical skills such as Mittal, in enterprise resource planning, now found themselves sidelined. "Sales folk now focused on broad contracts with clients and not employee skills...if your skill wasn't required for a big contract, you found yourself out in the cold," he claims. 

Companies that were previously brushed aside by engineers in the quest for a coveted IT job are clearly sensing this shift. "IT is no longer the most attractive sector for jobs," says Raja Radhakrishnan, head-HR for ABB India, a power gear maker. As the interest in IT wanes, companies such as ABB are discovering that top candidates are increasingly opting for careers in their chosen specialty (electrical and electronic engineering with ABB), rather than punting on a role in an IT company. 

Another HR head, Jacob Jacob of Apollo Hospitals, says healthcare may replace IT as the hiring sunrise industry over the next five to seven years. "There is a huge demand for healthcare across the country and the impact is more immediate and impactful if you work in this sector," he says. 

Making such a shift won't be easy for the large number of code writers in the IT industry. "It is easier for sales and management executives to switch between sectors," says Anish Singh, CEO of Techbridge Networks, a recruitment solutions provider in Bangalore. "But for the hundreds of thousands of programmers who constitute the core of the IT sector, there is very little choice." 

Changing profile

This decline in their careers is dragging down their social standing too. For example, marriage bureaus and websites are reporting decreased interest in profiles of IT workers, especially those with shaky visa statuses or residency permits stuck in red tape. 

"There has been a significant decrease in the premium accorded to profiles of NRIs and onsite workers in the IT sector," says Muragavel Janakiraman, CEO of Bharatmatrimony. com, a popular marriage portal. Holding an IT job is increasingly viewed with the same lens as jobs in other organised sectors, he adds. 

Lalitha Iyer is now facing up to some of these changes. Her son Vishnu, 30, has gone matrimonial goldmine to pariah in 18 months. In early-2011, he went to Germany on an onsite contract. Before his departure, she swatted away piles of potential matches. Now, he's back his stint, had his H-1B visa application rejected for a US trip. His salary hike too is frozen. "We're not getting any younger to keep supporting him emotionally," Iyer says in her small house in North Bangalore. 

HR consultants too are sensing this shift. "The freshness associated with an IT sector job has waned," says Ajit Isaac, founder of Ikya Human Capital Solutions in Bangalore. "Altered tax norms have made ESOPs less attractive and increased disposable incomes have made overseas trips personally more affordable." 

As salaries are also slow to grow (seet), the IT industry's lucre only fades further. "Those days of IT-BPO industry hiring everybody and anybody in college are over," admits Bhasin. As the industry tightens its belt and employment opportunities decline, the rush to net an IT job has slowed. 

However, not everyone thinks that this holds true. "Which other industry hires freshers for Rs 2.5-3 lakh per year," asks R Elango, HR chief for MphasiS, a HP-owned outsourcer. "We have become a lot more discerning with our hiring...we yet get 300,000-500,000 unsolicited CVs a year." The industry is no longer a mass hirer of technical talent masses of ordinary engineers won't be hired. "The demand and quality equations have irrevocably changed," he says. 

New normal

This is the IT sector's third stumble in two decades, each of which has caused significant job losses. First was the slowdown the dotcom meltdown in 2001, then the Lehman-led dive in 2008, and now the battering a persistent global slowdown. This time, the sector is not just re-inventing itself, it is reshaping into a leaner industry. Rather than streets lined with gold, techies have discovered a more brutal reality. 

Deepak John, 30, switched jobs five times in the past decade in the quest for better pay and perks. Now, some of them of the chase is wearing thin. He has rotated through stints in sales and marketing besides being a pure coder. Today, few options are at hand for this electrical engineer, who thought he had it all. "I haven't been abroad in 18 months and two projects have been cancelled," he says. 

The new normal that current and future IT job holders is taking many forms. For example, enrolments at institutes such as NIIT, which supply a raft of technology manpower to companies, are feeling the full force of this rethink. NIIT's flagship IT course, the three-year GNIIT, which enrolled about 70,000 students a year till 2010, now has 50,000 students. "In the next three years, our non-IT revenue will be 30% of the total double of what it is today," says Vijay K Thadani, CEO of NIIT. 

Nitin Pujari, head of department, computer sciences, PES Institute of Technology, says "during the dotcom-led slowdown, students panicked because everyone wanted to jump into IT. This is no longer the case. Students are smarter and more aggressive...other industries, government service and entrepreneurship arestrong alternatives." 

Prashasthi Prabhakar, a fourth semester computer sciences student, has seen her interest in joining the struggling outsourcing bandwagon dim. Instead of a seemingly cushy job with an outsourcer, she wants to try the UPSC ( Public Service Commission) exam, a gateway to a government job. "I'd rather use my engineering skills to improve public service delivery," she says.

Mittal the engineer with the medical devices firm thinks that networking both online and offline has also put a spanner in the works. "When I started in IT, you were just happy to land a job," he explains. "However, now the industry has grown and people know its benefits and ills in equal measure." People with a job offer in the tech sector now do their own reference checks and aren't averse to walking away a company or the entire industry if they feel that its aspirational value is headed south. 

All this networking, however, came to naught for 23-year-old Dev Chatterjee, who first found himself benched and three months later fired his job with a mid-sized software exporter. After many attempts, he found a job as a part-time Java developer with a startup real estate portal. 

Several people had vetted his previous employment choice, but his career unravelled when a client killed an outsourcing deal. "Now, I will never recommend this sector to anyone," he says. 

In these tough times, it's unlikely he'll get too much sympathy. "Employees must realise that jobs will get automated and they have to stay ahead of the curve. The calibre of people that the industry is looking at is going up," says former Genpact chief Bhasin. "Companies don't need that many trained engineers to run an IT help desk... work will not go away, but fewer people will be needed." 

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Scientists working on most powerful cyber security

MELBOURNE: Australian scientists are working on Quantum mechanics which is being applied to computing in order to develop most powerful and impenetrable cyber security method ever conceived. 

The team behind the new technology has been tasked with creating an impenetrable network for the Australian government, according to a Australian Broadcasting Corporation report. 

The technique pioneered by a team of scientists in Sydney, is called quantum cryptography. 

"One of the things you can do with the quantum computing is to expand the data security capabilities a country has," said Morello University of New South Wales. 

Traditionally, cryptography involves three main parties - a sender, the recipient and the eavesdropper or hacker. 

Hackers at present are able to intercept communications without the sender or recipient knowing, Morello added. 

But quantum cryptography will be able to prevent access by detecting hackers and destroying or altering messages as hackers try to obtain them. 

"Anyone who attempts to eavesdrop the connection and essentially tap the data would destroy the data on the spot," he said. 

The problem however is actually in making the computer, he said adding that to make a quantum chip a single phosphorous atom is introduced into a regular silicon chip. 

The atom's magnetic core - its nucleus is completely isolated the outside world because it so minute. 

"What we have shown is that we can write and read quantum information in the magnetic orientation of the nucleus," said Morello. 

To give an idea of scale, a computer with 300 quantum bits is thought to be able to contain a level of classical information equivalent tothe elementary particles of the universe. 

"What we are reliant on at the moment is the fact that it's just too hard to decrypt," said Vikram Sharma, the chief of QuintessenceLabs. 

However he added that in future through thingsquantum computers these codes could be broken. 

Cyber security is high on government's agenda following the last month reports on Chinese hackers allegedly gaining access to Australian government systems. 

The new quantum network will incorporate Capital Hill, the new ASIO building and governmental departments such as the Treasury. 

"It consists of fibre-optic links in the parliamentary triangle in Canberra to transmit information in an absolutely secure way," said Morello. 

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Meet Lenovo's 27-inch Horizon

The big breakthrough was the iPad: a flat, thin, beautiful, nearly buttonless computer,touchscreen. But that was three years ago. Ever since then, Apple's rivals have churned out iPad clones in different sizes. Ten inches diagonal? How about 11? How about nine? Or seven? Or five? In Samsung's line alone, you can buy a tablet that matches almost any shoe size.

But the size variations don't do much more than nudge the needle along the convenience spectrum. A little bigger means greater screen area; a little smaller means better portability.

The Lenovo Horizon doesn't just nudge the needle — it snaps off the needle and teleports it. Its screen measures 27-inch diagonally.

Now, at this point, Lenovo's rivals probably have cartoon steam exploding their ears. "Twenty-seven inches? That's not a tablet, you idiot — that's an all-in-one PC!"

So what is the Horizon? A PC or a tablet? The argument could go onnight. The fact that it has a three-hour battery only confuses the issue. And there's an optional table — a $300 rolling adjustable stand specially designed to hold and raise the Horizon.

One thing, the Horizon certainly is novel. The concept is fresh. It dispenses with the refrain that electronic entertainment encourages isolation and represents a step down the olden days, when families gathered around the coffee table for game nights.

Game nights around the Horizon may not become as much of a tradition as the old board games made of wood or cardboard. First, because as clever as the Aura world is, the games are a little laggy. It's just not as responsive as you'd like. Often, that sluggishness really saps some of the joy.

Second, because even if it actsa huge tablet, the Horizon isn't portablea tablet. Your children won't want to play with this thing in the back seat for long car rides, unless they're sumo wrestlers.

Lenovo deserves great credit for transforming the tablet into something that's fresh and interesting, something that serves a purpose no other machine quite fills. There really is something new in the Horizon.

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Infosys seeing surge in job applications

BANGALORE/MUMBAI: The prospect of a 'new, improved' Infosys is seen leading to a surge in job applications at the software firm, even in tepid market conditions. Infosys has seen a 39.1% drop in job applications in FY13 compared with the previous year. But healthy salary raise of 8%, a 3-year 'daunting' roadmap chalked out by executive chairman Narayana Murthy may lead to a spike in the company's image as a preferred employer.

"Infosys may not demand so many employees but it will see at least a 20% increase in inbound resumes, specially at lower levels and the middle management," said Surabhi Mathur Gandhi, senior vice-president of TeamLease.

The rush will extend across profiles. "It may be the same coding or testing work, but outsiders will want to be part of the changes that Murthy will bring in; and this will not happen if they are working for competition," says Aditya Narayan Mishra, president - staffing and director, marketing, Randstad India.

The number of job applicants at Infosys has seen a steady decline since FY11, when it was at 8,29,800. It plummeted to 6,22,971 in FY12, and in FY13, it dipped further to 3,79,000.

The situation is likely to be very different now. "More people will be interested because the original founder is back. He was one of those who built the company the ground up and they expect him to do something radically different to get things back on track," says Debabrat Mishra, director, Hay Group, India. But Mishra too added that since old team remains the same, those at senior levels will still not be too keen to apply as they will see limited scope for growth.

The company has also not mentioned if applications per opening have seen a dip or remained the same. On an annualised basis, the firm has hired 37,036 employees in FY13 compared with 45,605 in the year-ago period. Besides, CEO and MD, SD Shibulal had said the company will maintain its 70:30 ratio of freshers to laterals, wherein 70% of freshers will come campus while the rest will be off-campus.

Off campus students are those who do not get placed during campus interviews and companies get to pick them later the remaining pool.

But even if markets are constricted and openings reduce further, competition will have to be on guard. "When a rejig happens, the employer takes stock and then moves forward. One defines new thrust areas and Infosys is at that stage now. Murthy's redefining brand image will attract talent," says Sanjay Modi, managing director (MD), Monster.com (India, Middle East, Southeast Asia)

Kelly Services too predicts a 20% increase in applications. Nearly seven years ago, tapping an Infosys employee for a job shift was difficult, but that became easy later with other companies and sectors stepping up. Now it may go back to old times, says Kelly MD, Kamal Karanth .

An email sent to Infosys remained unanswered.

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Mobile companies shift focus to software design

SAN FRANCISCO: Last week, Timothy D Cook, Apple's CEO , stood on stage at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference without a new version of the iPhone or the iPad or some new device. 

After showing off new laptop computers and a new, cylindrical Mac Pro, Cook and other Apple executives spent the rest of their two-hour keynote address discussing the features of Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 7. With the image of a flattened smartphone interface with thin typography on a screen in the background, Cook proudly noted, "This is the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone." 

How does he figure that? 

Cook's bold claim was based on something that is well understood in tech circles but is easily overlooked by consumers. It is the design of the software, far more than the look and feel of the device itself, that allows a company to leap over its competitors. 

Hardware featuresprocessing speed or screen resolution or even how well a camera works offer only fleeting advantages in the constant competition among smartphone makers. And with more than 1 billion smartphones in the world today, many of them with the same rectangular design meant to fit in your hand yet large enough to be used as a phone, it is hard to imagine a breakthrough in their general look. 

But changes to the software are limited only by the skill and creativity of a company's engineers and designers, and are not as easily mimicked since they appeal to softer notions"experience" rather than speed or weight. 

Designers at Apple, Microsoft and Google appear to have been keenly aware of that when they worked on the latest versions of their mobile operating systems, experimenting with ways of making software that are unique yet as intuitive as a road sign. 

"I have my home, I have my office and I now I have my phone interface," said Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. "When you turn a smartphone off it is an enigmatic monolith; it's the interface that not only animates it but gives it meaning."

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MakeMyTrip gets Rs 28 crore tax demand notice

NEW DELHI: The I-T department has slapped a tax demand notice of Rs 27.6 crore on online travel firm MakeMyTrip for assessment year 2009-2010 but the company said it is contesting the claim. 

"We had received an additional tax demand of almost Rs 28 crore last month for AY 2009-10 which was substantially reduced after adjustment of brought forward losses (pursuant to a favourable order of the appellate authorities in one of the earlier years)," a spokesperson of the company said. 

The spokesperson further said that the company has not accepted the allegations of the tax officer leading to these demands and has taken appropriate action at the next level to alleviate the same. 

MakeMyTrip has filed its objections before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) on May 30, 2013, the firm said. 

The company has offices in 20 cities across India and two international offices in New York and San Francisco, in addition to several franchise locations. 

The Nasdaq-listed firm's services and products include air tickets, customised holiday packages, hotels, rail tickets, bus tickets, car hire and facilitating access to travel insurance.

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Yahoo details US govt's requests for data

Yahoo said US law enforcement agencies made between 12,000 and 13,000 requests for data in the last six months, the latest in a series of disclosures by technology companies since intelligence leaks showed the extent of government data gathering efforts. 

The company said the requests were made between December 1, 2012 and May 31 this year.

"The most common of these requests concerned fraud, homicides, kidnappings, and other criminal investigations," Yahoo said in a statement posted on its Tumblr page. 

Others were made under the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, it said. 

Technology companies have been under pressure to disclose the precise nature of their cooperation with the US National Security Agency (NSA) after leaked documents showed it had been acquiring consumer data them for years. 

Edward Snowden, a disillusioned former CIA computer technician who had worked as a contractor at the NSA, identified himself as the source of multiple disclosures on the surveillance that were published by the Guardian and the Washington Post this month. 

The reports fuelled a passionate debate in the United States over how to balance civil liberties and the right to individual privacy with concerns about national security. 

Apple, Microsoft and Facebook have also disclosed the number of data requests they received US law enforcement authorities. 

The companies denied the NSA had any direct access to their servers and said consumer data was only handed over if the request was in the form of a court order.

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TCS CEO: Depreciating rupee gives a sense of false confidence

In an interview with ET Now, N Chandrasekaran, CEO, TCS, shares his view on the depreciating rupee and the impacts of the immigration bill. Excerpts: 

ET Now: What is your view on the rupee?

N Chandrasekaran: Highly depreciating rupee is not good two different points. First of all, it just gives you a sense of false confidence. The second thing is it is not good for the Indian economy and so we woulda stable rupee at least in a narrow band and also rupee definitely should strengthen and get to a levelit can stay for a long time. Particularly for TCS, we just have to seeit ends. In general, I do not think that it is going to affect us badly, but we need to seeit ends.of this is happening so quick, so fast. 

ET Now: Can we get a number or a range in which you will be saying that okay we are safe and we are making gains these rupee levels?

N Chandrasekaran: That varies quarter to quarter. So it depends on the particular quarter. We take short-term hedges and so at this point in time because of the hedge, we are not going to have an impact, any negative impact. 

ET Now: And going forward are you worried if it drops further? Is that going to be a concern?

N Chandrasekaran: No, not really. We just need to seethe levels are and we have taken short-term hedges. So we will take further hedges for the future and we will be monitoring the situation. So I cannot tell you today because we have not made the call yet. 

ET Now: And talking about the immigration bill, how concerned are you right now and are your clients really on tenterhook because of that bill in the waiting and they are really looking at the outcome of that?

N Chandrasekaran: our point of view the way the bill stands, definitely it will have an impact. It will have unintended consequences both on the companiesus and also on the US economy in general. I would say that this is an areawe are very actively engaged and watching, but we just need to see what the final version of the bill is going to be. a customer's point of view, they are aware of what is going on. So there are no unduly concerns. That is not impacting the business today. 

ET Now: While there is hectic lobbying going on in the US also against this bill by parties which are interested and have vested interest in that, so do you think that if the watered down version does not come, the bill in this form is a big concern for a companyTCS and the Indian IT...?

N Chandrasekaran: As the bill is getting debated and the process is going on, it is better to watch what the final version of bill is going to be and not dig into a hypothetical discussion. Then if you say wage hike, if you say level four, they are going to three levels, then you start developing spreadsheets about what those levels are. There are a lot of things in which there is clarity required. So at this point in time, you can develop a lot of hypothetical scenarios. I do not think that is necessary. The process is on and there are multiple different stakeholders not only for the high-skilled visa programme, but for other parts of it. 

ET Now: But what I really wanted to know is that outplacement clause and that is going to really hurt if it that goes through. Is there a plan being placed at least?

N Chandrasekaran: Also the outplacement clause that you are talking about has got so many interpretations. I do not know if you have read the actual clause. If you read the actual clause and talk to five different people, there are five different interpretations. So it depends on how you interpret. So that is why I said it is not because I do not want to give you a one-line answer to you, it is just because there is more clarity required for you to deal with it and obviously a companyus will work out various scenarios and we will be proactive in whatever steps we have to take. So I am fairly confident that whatever is the final version, that will take into account the viability of everything the client's point of view, the employment point of view.those things will be taken into account. 

ET Now: So do you see any positive in it at all?

N Chandrasekaran: A lot more clarity in the whole visa programme will be a positive. The cap of the total number of visas available is likely to be increased. That will also be a positive. This is an issue that is getting debated for a few years at least. So we will have stability going forward if you exactly know what the way forward is. 

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Wearable tech: Batteries are game changers

SAN FRANCISCO: Longer-lasting batteries are crucial for a new crop of wearable computers whose rise may upend Apple and Google's dominance of mobile devices, two of the field's pioneers say. 

Wearable devices - bracelets that monitor physical activity and sleeping patterns to clothing with built-in sensors and Web-ready glasses - may mark the next big technology shift, just as smartphones evolved personal computers. 

That transition has put the unglamorous battery in a starring role. 

"All this wearable stuff is constrained by battery technology. It's not a computing problem," Hosain Rahman, CEO of Jawbone, told the Reuters Global Technology Summit. 

While battery technology has not expanded at the same clip as miniaturization and displays for instance, some wearables pioneers are hopeful for a breakthrough in coming years. 

"There are other things that will come up five years down the roadremoteging that will cause a huge next leap because it breaks this dependence on the battery. But right now the biggest challenge is the battery that's small enough and serves you," Soulaiman Itani, chief executive of Atheer Labs, said at the summit in San Francisco. 

Itani likened wearable computing's current stage of evolution to smartphones during the mid-2000s. 

"It's at the Palm stage, and you need an iPhone to come out," Itani said, referring to Palm Pilots that predated the 2007 iPhone that won strong reviews but was rendered defunct after Apple's seminal device was launched. 

Rewriting the rules

According to Forrester Research, about 5 per cent of online US adults say they wear a device with a sensor that can monitor some form of activity, such as running or sleeping. 

Asked what gadget they would be most keen on using, 29 per cent of participants cited a device that clips on to clothing. 

Devices that attach to the wrist were close behind with interest 28 per cent, while glasses trailed other options, garnering interest 12 per cent of the participants. 

Google is testing a $1,500 version of Glass, a stamp-sized electronic screen mounted on a pair of eyeglass frames. Apple and Samsung Electronics are said to be working on other forms of wearable technology, such as a smartwatch. 

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has called wearable computers an area "ripe for exploration." But during his comments at the AllThingsDigital conference last month, he stopped short of confirming reports the company was developing a smartwatch. 

Google and Apple, which have the two most popular smartphone operating systems, have the heft to boost the nascent market and potentially control it, thanks to a vast number of users and the hundreds of thousands of apps that run on their software. 

Some think the market for wearable computers won't take off until Apple enters the fray, providing the kind of clever design and marketing blitz that helped transform smartphones into a must-have consumer item. 

"If Apple enters the market that would be a rapid leap forward," said Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps. "Apple is a market maker. Any Apple device can sell tens of millions of units."

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Huawei launches 6.1-inch phone @ Rs 25k

NEW DELHI: Chinese communications giant Huawei launched its Ascend Mate smartphone in India. This devices features a 6.1-inch screen that dwarves even the likes of the popular Samsung Galaxy Note II. The manufacturer has priced this device, which was launches at CES 2013 in January, at Rs 24,900.

Also read: Hands on review of Huawei Ascend Mate

Huawei Ascend Mate features a display with 1280x720p resolution that can be used while wearing gloves. It is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core processor made by Huawei, coupled with 2GB RAM. Powered by a 4,050mAh battery and running on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) with Emotion UI, this device has 8GB storage, expandable up to 32GB via microSD card.

On the connectivity front, Ascend Mate features 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, microUSB 2.0 and Bluetooth 4.0. The device has an 8MP rear camera and a 1MP front HD snapper. The device weighs a hefty 198 gram and measures just 6.5mm along the waistline, making it thinner than iPhone 5.This device's battery is said to last up to 2 days on a singlege and can act as a power pack for other smartphones. The power control system boosts the battery life of the handset by 30%. The keyboard of the device can be reduced in size and moved towards the left or right, so that users find it easier to type on the large screen even with just one hand.

The company has started selling its mobile devices in partnership with retails storesCroma, Ezone and online websitesFlipkart, Snapdeal, Shopclues among others.

"We will invest around 8 to 10 per cent of our mobile devices revenue in India. In 2012, our India revenue was $300 million. The spent would be mainly in strengthening our retail presence and brand building exercise," Huawei's president, India device business development, Victor Shan said on the sidelines of the launch of its high-end phablet.

At Rs 24,900, this phone will not only take on Samsung's Galaxy Note II but will also rival the South Korean giant's newly launched Galaxy Mega 6.3 and Galaxy Mega 5.8.

Targeting sales of 10 lakh smartphones in the next six months, Huawei Telecommunications said it will invest up to Rs 175 crore in brand building and strengthening its retail presence in the country. Huawei India has a local manufacturing facility in Chennai and employs a total of 2600 software engineers across the country. The company shipped 10 million handsets and generated revenue of $500 million. Globally, the company is among the top five smartphone manufacturers and shipped 200 million units last year.

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What is keeping India‘s engineers unemployed

Somewhere between a fifth to a third of the million students graduating out of India's engineering colleges run the risk of being unemployed. Others will take jobs well below their technical qualifications in a marketthere are few jobs for India's overflowing technical talent pool. Beset by a flood of institutes (offering a varying degree of education) and a shrinking market for their skills, India's engineers are struggling to subsist in an extremely challenging market. 

According to multiple estimates, India trains around 1.5 million engineers, which is more than the US and China combined. However, two key industries hiring these engineers information technology and manufacturing are actually hiring fewer people than before. 

For example, India's IT industry, a sponge for 50-75% of these engineers will hire 50,000 fewer people this year, according to Nasscom. Manufacturing, too, is facing a similar stasis, say HR consultants and skills evaluation firms. 

According to data AICTE, the regulator for technical education in India, there were 1,511 engineering colleges across India, graduating over 550,000 students back in 2006-07. Fuelled by fast growth, especially in the $110 billion outsourcing market, a raft of new colleges sprung up since then, the number of colleges and graduates have doubled. 

Job problems...

Jobs have, however, failed to keep pace. "The entire ecosystem has been built around feeding the IT industry," says Kamal Karanth, managing director of Kelly Services, a global HR consultancy. 

"But, the business model of IT companies has changed...customers are asking for more. The crisis is very real today." Placement numbers across institutes including tier-I colleges such as IIT Bombay have mirrored these struggles. 

In 2012-13, in IIT Bombay, a total of 1,501 students opted to go through the placement process. At the time of writing, only 1,005 had been placed (placements are currently underway in the institute). 

In 2011-12, 1,060 of the 1,389 students were placed. Further down the pecking order, at the Amity School of Engineering and Technology, placements are muted. The number of companies visiting is down 86 last year to 67 in 2013 at the time of writing (placements are currently underway). 

Batch sizes have reduced drastically at its Noida campus this year, with 365 students placed so far in a batch size of 459, compared to 1,032 being placed in a batch size of 1,160 last year. 

"Some companies have ed the joining dates of students who passed out last year and they are still waiting to be placed," says Ajay Rana, director, Amity Technical Placement Centre. "We can expect joining dates of students who passed out this year to be deferred by a minimum of six months." 

...Trickle down

This muddled equation is now showing signs of social and economic strain across the country. Frustrated engineers are taking jobs for which they are overqualified and, therefore, underpaid. 

A few exceptions have even turned to crime. According to media reports, Manjunath Reddy, a civil engineer, turned to chain snatching in Thane, a suburb of Mumbai, to support his young family. While he used some money to buy a small flat in peripheral Mumbai, his failure to net a job drove him to crime, he told the police when caught. 

Like him, another engineer in Aurangabad turned to car lifting as a route to easy money. "The social aspect of this massive under-employment and unemployment will soon be witnessed," warns Pratik Kumar, HR chief of Wipro and chief executive of its infrastructure engineering unit. 

Hiring is slowing down because recruiters are changing their strategy. "An engineering degree is a poor proxy for your education and employment skills," says Manish Sabharwal, chairman of TeamLease, a temp staffing firm. 

"The world of work is evolving... employers increasingly don't care what you know, they focus on what you can do with that knowledge." While dozens of new institutes have been established in the past six or eight years, he claims that over a third of them are empty and perhaps they are "worth more dead (for the real estate they sit on) than alive." 

A global economic slowdown may have only worsened what is already a bad problem, say others such as Amit Bansal, co-founder of Purple Leap, a skills assessment firm, which routinely gauges the capabilities of students across these institutes. 

"Even without this slowdown, there are a large number of students who won't get a job," he says. Bansal estimates that, at best, there are 150,000-200,000 jobs generated annually in the Indian economy and far too many engineers attacking this labour pool. 

What's more, India's technical talent pool is also warped, with almost the same number of engineers as technical graduates institutes such as ITI. "In developed markets, there is usually one engineer for every ten," says Bansal. This skew is only compounding the woes of engineers in India.

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Sony launches 65-inch 4K TV at Rs 4 lakh

NEW DELHI: Sony India today added two new models to its 4K TV portfolio and refreshed its Bravia line-up by unveiling 20 new television sets. The new models in Sony's 4K range have displays measuring 55-inch (KD-55X9004) and 65-inch (KD-65X9004) and are priced at Rs 3.05 lakh and Rs 4.05 lakh, respectively. The previous 4K TV that Sony unveiled cost Rs 17 lakh and had screen measuring 84-inch.

These two televisions come with X-Reality Pro video encoding technology that upscales any video to match the 4K resolution of 3840x2160p. The Japanese manufacturer has added this technology in order to cope with the lack of 4K content available globally. Other technologies integrated in these TVs are Triluminous, QD Vision's Colour IQ, One-touch mirroring, TV SideView, magnetic speakers and 3D viewing.

Sony said it will launch 20 new Bravia televisions in India in 2013, including the 4K models. The series extend Sony's new design concept, called Sense of Quartz, to match the exterior aesthetics for home with an angular, faceted outer cabinet.the models in the company's W Series of TVs come with Wi-Fi connectivity along with featuresone-touch connect, direct 3G dongle plug in and MHL.

According to KenichiroHibi, managing director, Sony India, "Over the years, Sony India has established market leadership in flat-panel televisions category and we aim to further strengthen this position with the newly launched line-up of 4KBravia televisions. With the launch today, we are targeting a bigger market for 4K TVs by introducing the technology at a very strategic price-point. We will be increasing our Bravia marketing budget to Rs 250 crore and channel counters to 7,000 in FY13."

He added that the company would launch a new range of affordable and compact TV sets by the end of this year. "We will launch affordable television sets for tier II and III cities this year and keep prices around Rs 15,000," he said. 

The company is expecting Tier 2 and 3 cities to boost volumes, while sales of high-end products in the big metro markets will push its revenue margins. It is also targeting 20% increase in revenue this fiscal. "There is huge growth potential hidden in the smaller cities... For big metro, we are focusing on value strategy. We are trying to sell high-end products in metros. We want to approach right customers with right products," Hibi said. Sony India, which imports 100% of its products Malaysia, is aiming to sell 13 lakh television sets in the current fiscal as against 11 lakh sold in previous financial year, an increase of 18%. Bravia contributes 35% to the company's sales at present.

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How to change privacy settings in Facebook Timeline

Facebook's privacy settings allow you to block your friends posting photos and comments directly to your Timeline, although they can still see and comment on any photos or updates you post there yourself. To get to your account's controls, log into Facebook, click the gear-shaped icon in the top right corner of the page and Account Settings. 

On the left side of the Account Settings screen, click on the "Timeline and Tagging" link. In the centre of the page, in the "Who can post in your timeline?" area, click the Edit link. In the drop-down menu that appears, Only Me. 

The same Timeline and Tagging settings also let you choose who can see posts on your Facebook page, so you can choose instead to allow friends to post things to your Timeline — but have those posts visible only to you, and not your friends. 

Over the years, Facebook has changed its privacy controls and other settings several times. You can find the help guide to the site's current privacy settings and tools here.

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Former Cisco Senior Exec Zeeshan Naseh Appointed to Lead Connectloud

Connectloud Inc., a software startup now in stealth mode, announced today that former Cisco Systems executive Zeeshan Naseh has been appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer. The company also announced that it is being advised by a slate of technology and business all-stars, including Ken Morse, serial entrepreneur and Founding Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, and Stanford University professor and entrepreneur Ryan Orr.

Naseh is a seasoned Silicon Valley technology executive who served nearly 15 years at Cisco Systems, most recently as Director Services. He built Cisco’s cloud services business whiteboard to global field launch, including its growth to more than $1 billion in revenue. Naseh’s next challenge is to lead Connectloud through the global execution and expansion of its mission to bring simplicity, flexibility and true business value to enterprises and service providers.

“We are thrilled to have an executive with Zeeshan’s proven technology and leadership experience to lead the Connectloud team in the next phase of business expansion,” said M. A. Ashraf, head of the Corporate Banking Group at Abu Dhabi Bank and a member of Connectloud’s Board of Advisors.

“This is for sure an ‘A’ team, and I am glad to be part of it,” said Morse, a leading figure in technology startups for more than 40 years. “With Zeeshan leading the way, and the track records of advisors who have signed on already, I believe Connectloud is well-positioned to achieve major success.”

Naseh said he is excited to lead a team that is already breaking new ground in delivering value to businesses.

“Having built businessesover the world, I can simply say that the Connectloud team is the best I’ve seen,” Naseh said. “I see Ph.D.s sitting and working together with fresh graduates, collaborating and innovating day and night. It is a privilege and honor to lead such a high-velocity, innovative team.”

He described the company’s technology as “highly disruptive, to say the least.”

“I see an amazing futureC-level executives will finally get what they have been asking for – the seamless ability to drive accelerated business growth via IT, anywhere,” Naseh said.

In addition to Ashraf, who has managed an asset base exceeding $11 billion in 33 years of executive banking, and other senior Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, the following have joined Connectloud’s Board of Advisors:

• Kenneth P. Morse – Morse was Founding Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center 1996 to 2009. Since 1972, he has been either CEO or head of sales and marketing for six technology startups – five of which went public or were successfully merged. They include 3Com Corp. and Aspen Technology. He is currently on the Board of Advisors of more than a dozen tech startups around the world and serves on the Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S. National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
• Dr. Ryan J. Orr – Orr is a Stanford University professor, consultant, entrepreneur and investor recognized around the world as an expert in infrastructure and technology. In addition to teaching on infrastructure, finance and entrepreneurship at Stanford, Orr is chairman and co-founder of Zanbato, a technology platform that connects investors with infrastructure deals in emerging and developed markets.
• Dr. Kamil Sarac – Sarac is an associate professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Dallas, with specialized research interests that include software-defined networking, computer network and protocols, network security, network and service monitoring and internet measurements. His work in IP multicast monitoring and management domain has been adopted through industrywide peer standardization.

About Connectloud

Dallas-based Connectloud Inc. is a venture-backed software startup that successfully completed a Series-A round of funding in early 2013. 

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