alexiskold piggybank tcs, infy got only eight roads, … · ate that magic later this year with the...
TRANSCRIPT
ate that magic later this year with theModel 3, a $35,000 entry-level luxurysedan. A longer-range Nissan Leafwill be unveiled in September, anddepending on its pricetag, it could be-gin to approach the parity zone in thesub-$30,000 market. And then watchout: In 2018, Volkswagen plows intoelectrification with an Audi SUV andthe first high-speed US charging net-work to rival Tesla’s Superchargers.Jaguar and Volvo both have promi-sing cars on the way too, and by 2020,the avalanche really begins, withMercedes, VW, General Motors andothers releasing dozens of new mo-dels. When the US incentives begin toexpire next year, don’t expect a Geor-gia-sized collapse in the market. Theperiod of greatest peril is ending forEVs, and the time of greatest promi-se is beginning. Incentives are im-portant, but they won’t define the
market formuch
longer.
Bloomberg
New York:Are electric cars ready tostand on their own?
Edmunds, the car-research compa-ny, warned that the elimination of a$7,500 US tax credit is “likely to kill(the) US EV market.” Edmunds pin-ned its argument on what happenedin Georgia, a state that became an un-likely leader in electric cars thanksto an extra $5,000 incentive.
At one point, almost 4% of new carsbeing sold in Georgia were electric.Then they pulled away the punchbowl. But a very illuminating thinghappened after Georgia’s incentivesexpired. Teslas were barely affectedby the loss of the tax credit. In fact,more people are buying Teslas in Ge-orgia today than during the subsidyyears.
The Tesla exception shows whathappens when an electric car rea-ches parity with fuel-burning com-petitors in both price and function.
Changes to state or federal incenti-ves are unlikely to alter that fact. Butthose Teslas are premium cars thatstart around $70,000. For plugins toreally pass the subsidy test and takeover the auto industry, they’ll need toprove themselves in cheaper classesof car, and there will have to me moremanufacturers besides Tesla.
When might that happen?The primary cost for an electric car
is its battery, responsible for almosthalf the pricetag of a mid-sized plu-gin. If you take that away, electriccars are much cheaper to produceand maintain. (That’s why Frenchcarmaker Renault sells its popularZoe without a battery, which custo-mers pay a monthly fee to lease.) Fortrue mass-market appeal, the up-front sticker price is what mattersmost, and battery prices must comedown further. Fortunately, prices arefalling fast — by roughly 20% a year.The manufacturing cost of electriccars will fall below their gasoline co-unterparts across the board around2026, according to a recent analysisby Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Another thing that makes electriccars more expensive is that, at lower
volumes (less than 100,000 a year ofthe early models), even the traditio-nal components of a car come at hig-her costs. Low production numbersand high battery development costscreated a valley of despair for EVsthat lasted decades, which is whysubsidies have been critical to givingthe sector enough breathing room toeventually stand on its own.
Government incentives were cruci-al to the birth of the EV industry, andmany countries and local govern-ments will continue to offer them be-cause of the critical role electric carsplay in reducing pollution and com-batting climate change. But evenwhere governments are less enligh-tened, the valley of despair is comingto an end. Tesla will attempt to recre-
A Big Test Awaits eCar Revolution
WHEN E-CARS WILL WIN ON PRICEFalling battery prices will undercut gasoline cars by 2020
Electric Car Costs: Battery Powertrain Vehicle Gasoline Car
$45k
2016
48% 42% 36% 31% 27% 24% 21% 18%
2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 2028 2030
40353025201510
50
Source: Bloomberg
6 �THE ECONOMIC TIMES | BENGALURU | TUESDAY | 25 APRIL 2017Disruption: Startups & Tech
Bengaluru: Online marketplacePaytm Mall has started offeringsame-day delivery and installationof large appliances across 20 citiesto make the most of the high mar-gins and prices that this segment of-fers. Paytm Mall has tied up withbrands, distributors, and multi-brand stores to fulfill these orders.
Close to 80% of the orders receivedby the platform are fulfilled by ven-dors within the city who also offer
installation services at a nominalcharge.
“Our brand-led tie-ups with localmerchants have helped us ensurehigh availability, fast deliveries,
and smooth installation servicesfor our consumers which has inturn yielded growth for our part-ners. The upcoming summer hasmeant an increase in sales of air-
marketplace, does not stock in-ventory and will also process in-tra-city orders from their nea-rest brand retailer or businesspartner.
“For fulfilment, we have amassive network of 40-plusservice partners to handlelogistics. Our partners likeBlue Dart, Delhivery andXpress Bees have speciali-sed services for local delive-ries with correct handlingand shorter delivery times,”said Bagaria.
conditioners that has been furtherboosted by easy deliveries and in-stallation services offered on ourplatform,” said Amit Bagaria, vice-president at Paytm Mall. The cate-gory has a 500-strong sales team toscale the services to 50 cities thro-ugh tie-ups with local players.
Recently, Flipkart and Amazon In-dia also announced their invest-ments for installations of large app-liances ordered on their platforms,creating a chain of specialised wa-rehouses and distribution centres.
Paytm Mall, which is a pure play
Piggybank A roundup of top funding deals of the day from the startup world
software-as-a-service (SaaS), fi-nancial technology, artificial in-telligence, cyber security, andother emerging technology are-as. With an eye on companiesthat target larger addressablemarkets in Asia or globally, thefund’s recent investments inclu-de B2B ecommerce platformMoglix, and Singaporean techstartups Mimetic.ai and Homa-ge, which connects in-home ca-regivers with elderly people see-king assistance.
“The closing of the fund rein-forces our confidence that inves-
tors see Asia as a dynamic regionwhere entrepreneurship is flou-rishing and funding for startupswill take them to the next level ofgrowth,” said Pravan Malhotra,Head Asia Internet Investmentsat IFC.
“We make roughly 4 to 6 invest-ments per year and this calendaryear, we have made our first in-vestment in Singaporean com-pany Homage,” said SeedPlus’Smith which has backed two In-dian startups yet including App-knox and Moglix which is alsobacked by Ratan Tata.
Eight Roads, CiscoArm Till for SeedPlusSeedPlus Fund I has overshot its target corpus of S$25 million
$10m JungleVentures’ debut venture fund
THE CORPUS
A big leap from its debut venture fund Was contributed
by global institu-tional investors and family offices in the US and Singapore
This vehicle invests in ticket sizes start-ing from $3 million
$100 m Sec-ond fund an-nounced last year
Kolkata: Within months of re-ceiving seed funding of $100,000(around .̀ 64.5 lakh), on-demandhome service startup Frapperzis about to get an additional$400,000 (.̀ 2.58 crore) from its ex-isting investors, who include thecofounders, and Australian he-althcare entrepreneur Shiva Gu-napu. The startup, which ex-pects to get the fund over the nextthree to six months, will use it toupgrade its technology and ex-pand its geographical reach.
Apart from Shiva Gunapu, thecofounders and Hyderabad-ba-sed HNI Sirish Tarumani,among others, are the startup’sexisting investors. Founded inOctober 2015 by husband-wifeduo, Jyotirmay Kanthal andRimjhim Ray, a team of ex-corpo-
rates, IIT alumni, and some dro-pouts from Imperial College ofLondon, the Kolkata-based star-tup is a digital platform focusedon simplifying the process of set-ting up and creating beautiful li-ving spaces with trusted brandsand professionals. The startuphas a gross transaction va-lue of $10,000 per month.
The cofounders, thehusband-wife duo, said:“We plan to go for thenext round of fund rai-sing only after thestartup has improvedits revenue earningsover the next 12months. We, however,do not plan to diluteour stake beyond 80%from our existing 90%holding.” The firm hasjust launched Frap-perz Lounge, a plat-form which is a geo-
tagged online communitywhich allows users tobrowse through curatedofferings, catalogues, con-tent from professionals, andallows video consultationwith experts.
`̀2.6 cr more for Frapperz
New Delhi: Carnation Auto, the Jag-dish Khattar-promoted independentmulti-brand automobile solutionsprovider, has hit the market to raise anew round of funding, as it looks toexpand its footprints, particularly inthe southern part of the country.
Founded in 2009 by former MarutiSuzuki India managing directorKhattar, Carnation Auto has manda-ted BMR Advisors to scout for freshinvestors, according to two sourcesaware of the developments.
According to them, the company,which is primarily present across theDelhi-NCR region, Uttar Pradesh,Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maha-
rashtra and Gujarat, islooking to raise betwe-en .̀ 40-50 crore in equi-ty financing and is cur-rently in talks withmultiple investors,which are largely stra-tegic in nature.
When contacted byET, Khattar confirmedthat the company wasin talks to raise a newround of funding, butdeclined to providefurther details, citing
binding non-disclosure agreementssigned between the company and po-tential investors.
“We are in talks with several interes-ted parties, but nothing has been fina-lised yet,” he said. “We plan on usingthe proceeds towards brand buildingand marketing, expanding our foot-prints in the central and southernparts of India, and further upgradingour technology platforms,” the mana-ging director of Carnation Auto said.
Carnation currently counts Premji-Invest, the personal investment armof Wipro chairman Azim Premji,mid-market private equity firm GajaCapital and IFCI Ventures, among itslist of backers. The Noida-based com-pany has, till date, raised a little over.̀ 190 crore in financing, with inves-tors holding a majority stake in theventure. The latest funding round,however, is expected to be completely
led by new investors. Existingbackers are not expected to parti-
cipate, or exit post thecompletion of thesame, through thesecondary route,according to the so-
urces cited above.“Both, Gaja and IFCI
are not expected toinvest as they haveclosed their funds,”a second source sa-id. Carnation Auto,which competeswith the likes of Ma-hindra First Choiceand MyTVS, themulti-brand car ser-vicing chain of TVSAutomobile Solu-tions, currently hasabout 140 works-hops and used carshowrooms.
CarnationAuto is on aFund-raisingDrive Now
CarnationAuto hasmandatedBMRAdvisors toscout forfreshinvestors
Our Bureau
Bengaluru: Industry body Nas-scom on Monday stoutly defendedthe Indian IT companies which aWhite House official had accusedof unfairly getting the lion’s shareof H-1B visas. In a statement, Nas-scom said that Tata ConsultancyServices (TCS) and Infosys had re-ceived 7,504 visas which is only8.8% of the total approved H-1B vi-sas in FY 2015.
In a White house briefing last we-ek, the US official said that IndianIT firms — TCS, Infosys and Cog-nizant — get the lion’s share of vi-sas by putting extra tickets in thelottery system. The Trump admi-nistration wants to end the lotterysystem by replacing it with a ‘me-rit-based immigration policy’ pro-posal. “There is a certain degree ofperceptional gap and what is re-flected is not the reality. Our objec-tive of issuing the statement is tohighlight what the reality is to va-rious stakeholders,” said Shivend-ra Singh, VP, Nasscom told ET in atelephonic chat. In its statement,Nasscom said that the shortage ofskilled workers in fields such ascloud, big data and mobile compu-ting in the US has been well docu-mented and the US Department oflabour estimates that there will beabout 2.4 million unfilled STEMjobs by 2018. More than 50% vacan-cies are in IT-related positions.“All Indian IT companies cumula-tively account for less than 20% ofthe total approved H-1B visas; alt-hough Indian nationals get ~71%of the H-1B visas. This is a testimo-ny to the high skill levels of Indian-origin professionals, especially inthe very coveted STEM skills cate-gory,” Nasscom said.
Critics of the current H-1B visaregime argue that the cheap labo-ur from foreign countries displaceAmerican jobs. “Top three recipi-ents of H-1B visas (TCS, Infosysand Cognizant) … have an averagewage for H-1B visas between$60,000 and $65,000. By contrast,the median Silicon Valley softwa-re engineer’s wage is probablyaround $150,000, ” the White Houseofficial had said.
Nasscom countered this claim ci-ting their survey which foundthat,“the average wage for visaholders is over $82,000 apart from afixed cost of about $15,000 incur-red for each visa issued which in-cludes visa cost and related expen-ses. This is over 35% higher thanthe minimum prescribed exemptwage of $ 60,000”. Nasscom hadpreviously said that it backs themove to root out H-1B abuse. Askedif the proposed merit-based im-migration policy is a step in theright direction, Singh said: “Thechanges to the lottery system lo-oks at a skill-based approach. Weare yet to see what the nitty grittiesof the guidance will look like.”
The US is an important marketfor Indian IT companies which ac-counts for nearly 60% of India’s$129-billion export revenues.
“This is not a new thing. IT com-panies have been applying for mo-re visas knowing that they will geta fraction for years. The fact thatthey are being called out by theWhite House is more an embar-rassment but not a significant is-sue by itself. The move to merit-ba-sed visas will definitely hurt thesector,” an analyst with a Mum-bai-based brokerage said.
TCS, Infy Got Only8.8% of Total H-1BVisas, says Nasscom
WAIT AND WATCH
We are yet to see whatthe nitty gritties of the(skill-based) guidancewill look likeSHIVENDRA SINGH VP, Nasscom
corpus of `̀1,000 crore, will backstartups in areas of healthcare,agritech, sustainable energy and,digital technology aimed at theinclusion of the masses. ET had reported in February
that CIIE had received approvalfrom market regulator Sebi forthe Bharat Innovation Fund as acategory-I venture capital fundthat can also get incentives from
the government. Jain and mem-bers of CIIE refused to commenton the fund and on his role in it.
“CIIE has been at the forefront ofpromoting entrepreneurshipand innovation, particularly inthe less served parts of the mar-ket. India Stack is a great tool tohelp in serving these markets,and hence there is great synergywith CIIE and my previouswork,” Jain told ET. “My role willbe to bring in innovation to CIIE’sprograms, bring in an India Stackfocus, and also to engage with CII-E’s portfolio companies,” he said.
UIDAI’s Sanjay JainBoards CIIE to Focuson India Stack Infra
Investment PlanINFUSECIIE’s early-stage VC fund
Infuse in-vests in the clean tech-nology cos
14 - Investments it has made so far
SANJAY JAIN,Chief Innova-
tion Officer, CIIE
My role will be to bring in innova-tion to CIIE’s pro-grammes, bring in an India Stack fo-cus, and also to engage with portfolio firms
LATEST ENTRY UIDAI’s chief product manageris now CIIE’s chief innovation officer
Bengaluru: The Centre for Inno-vation, Incubation and Entrepre-neurship (CIIE), the technologybusiness incubator of IIM-Ahem-dabad, will get a new focus on theIndia Stack infrastructure as itbrings on board a key member ofthe Unique Identification Autho-rity of India (UIDAI), SanjayJain, who was its chief productmanager.
Jain has joined the CIIE as itschief innovation officer. The CI-IE was started to incubate andfund startups in areas such as he-althcare, education and cleanenergy, which are often underser-ved by the private sector.
Jain, who has experience acrossSun Microsystems, Google, UI-DAI, and software pro-duct think-tank,iSPIRT, has beenamong the key peoplewho helped develop In-dia Stack, an API-ba-sed infrastructurethat allows technolo-gies to be built aroundAadhaar authentica-tion and eKYC, eSign, Di-giLocker, and a unified paymentsinterface (UPI). India Stack hashelped push paperless and cash-less innovations in the country inrecent years.
“India Stack will bring the pos-sibility of improving the last-mi-le reach of startups especially inareas such as agriculture, healthand financial services. Jain’s rolewill be mainly focused on this,”said Neharika Vohra, chairper-son of CIIE Initiatives. Jain’s ap-pointment comes as the CIIE isworking on closing the Bharat In-novation Fund, which had beenannounced by PM Narendra Mo-di during his Silicon Valley visitin 2015. The fund, with a target
For comprehensive and insightful stories about all things startups and technology, log on to www.ettech.com
a
Every startup and decision is different but results speak for themselves. Asking what makes you spe-cial only meaningful for new VC, imo.
ALEX ISKOLD@ALEXISKOLD
Tweet OF THE DAY
Apple Says Sorry for New iCloud Fumble
Days after an error led to false iCloud cancel-lation emails sent to subscribers, Apple has followed up with an-other note apologising for the bug and reas-suring them that their plan remains in good standing. On Wednes-day, a number of iCloud users received messages saying their subscription was dis-continued. The bug ap-peared to mostly af-fect 50GB tier subscribers. On Satur-day, Apple followed up with the same users to issue an apology. —IANS
WhatsApp now lets Siri read your messages so you can ask your iP-hone voice assistant to read out your latest message and reply without touching your phone. All you have to do is say “Hey Siri, read my last WhatsApp message” and it will read out the contact name or phone num-ber and then last mes-sage. You can also re-ply with your voice. —BI
Tech Buzz
Siri will Read Aloud Chats on WhatsApp
A small electronic se-curity device with built-in authentication protocols to allow it to access a secured net-work and access data.
Key FobJargon Buster
53,000Cars recalled by Tesla due to faulty parking brake mechanism
Quick Byte ANIRBAN BORA
KIY
OSH
I SA
ITO
, Coral
EYES ON THE [email protected]
New Delhi: Cisco Investments,the investment arm of Cisco Sy-stems which specialises in bothdirect and fund-of-funds invest-ments, and Eight Roads Ventu-res, the proprietary investmentarm of Fidelity International,have announced their invest-ments in SeedPlus, a seed-stageventure fund based in Singaporewhich was launched by JungleVentures in 2015. With these in-vestments, SeedPlus Fund I hasovershot the target corpuswhich is S$25 million.
“The fund has been oversub-scribed but we won’t be able toshare the exact figure,” said Mi-chael Smith Jr, Partner at Seed-Plus, which is aiming to invest inIndian startups focussed on re-gional plays besides other star-tups across Asian markets. Theticket size for the fund rangesfrom S$50,000-80,0000 for the firstcheque. “India is a very activemarket for us and we usually tar-get startups that have regionalor pan-Asian capabilities, saidSmith, an earlier CTO at strea-ming service HOOQ.
SeedPlus has already beenbacked by SGInnovate, AccelPartners India, and Ratan Tata’sRNT Associates, among others.IFC, a unit under the WorldBank, had also recently announ-ced its participation with a $2-million investment in the fund.The Asia-focussed early-stage-focussed venture fund, whichusually invests in ticket sizes ofupto $1 million per startup, is al-so supported by Google and PwCSingapore. The fund eyes disrup-tion in startups in areas such as
Startup will get additional funds from existing investors
Paytm Mall will Bring Big Appliances on Same DayAMIT BAGARIA Vice-President, Paytm Mall
Our brand-led tie-ups with local merchants have hel-ped us ensure high availability, fast deliveries, andsmooth installation services for our consumers whichhas in turn yielded growth for our partners
With this offer, the marketplace aims to make the most of high margins and prices that the large appliances segment offers
7�WWW.ECONOMICTIMES.COM
Disruption: Startups & Tech
42% OF CEOs HAVE BEGUN DIGITAL SHIFT
Product improvement and technology are the biggest rising
priorities for CEOs in 2017 and 42% of them have begun digital business
transformation, says Gartner
German Chancellor Angela Merkel hold-ing a 3D-printed fig-urine of herself dur-ing a visit to the Hannover Messe trade fair for indus-trial technology in Germany. — AFP
Clone Me42% of CEOs have begun digital business transformation
22% Taking digital to the core of their en-terprise models
47%Of CEOs are being chal-lenged by the board of directors to make pro-gress in digi-tal business
56% Said that digital have al-ready improved their profits
BIGGEST PRIORITIES FOR CEOS IN 2017 Product improvement, technology
GROWTH Top business priority for 58% of CEOs
Tech Trotter
Our Bureau
New Delhi: HCL Technologies hasagreed to acquire Urban Fulfill-ment Services (UFS), a provider ofmortgage business process & fulfil-ment services, in a $30 million dealthat is expected to bolster the soft-ware firm’s capability in the areaof BPO and debt servicing.
Founded in 2002 in the US, UFSemploys over 350 people. It report-ed a turnover of $48 million in 2016,the Indian company said.
“The acquisition of Urban Fulfill-ment Services strengthens HCL’scapabilities in mortgage BPO ser-vices, loan fulfilment and debt ser-vicing space,” said Anoop Tiwari,corporate vice president and glob-al head – business services, HCLTechnologies.
“Combining UFS’ talent and cli-ent portfolio with HCL’s deep in-dustry expertise and business acu-men, offers us the unique opportu-nity to provide platform–based ser-vices on our own platform, driving
transformation through roboticsprocess automation,” he added.HCL Tech will acquire 100% of UFSand the total cash consideration of$30 million includes contingentpayments subject to certain finan-cial milestones.
Mortgage servicing is a regulatedactivity in the US and the transac-tion would require regulatory ap-provals for obtaining licences, itsaid in a statement.
UFS, which operates out of threecentres in the US, is engaged in pro-viding mortgage business processand fulfilment services to its cus-tomers.
HCL to Buy USCo UFS for $30m
NEW YORK An anti-cybercrime
operation by Interpol and in-
vestigators from seven south-
east Asian nations revealed
nearly 9,000 malware-laden
servers and hundreds of compro-
mised websites in the Asean
region, Interpol said on Monday.
Various types of malware, such
as that targeting financial in-
stitutions, spreading ransom-
ware, launching Distributed
Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks
and distributing spam were
among the threats posed by the
infected servers, the operation
showed. “This operation helped
participants identify and address
various types of cybercrime
which had not previously been
tackled in their countries,” said
Francis Chan, the head of the
Hong Kong Police Force’s cy-
bercrime unit. The operation also
identified nearly 270 websites
infected with a malware code,
among them several government
websites that may have con-
tained citizens’ personal data,
Interpol added. — Reuters
Interpol Finds9k InfectedAsian Servers
ET
NEW YORK Photos purportedly
showing an iPhone 8 dummy
model have been leaked online,
and if real, they confirm several
features that analysts have been
speculating about, including a
curved glass front and back. The
photos — leaked on Twitter by
Benjamin Geskin, who claims to
have a source with connections
to the Apple supplier Foxconn —
suggest that a big update to the
iPhone 7 could be on the way.
They show multiple iPhone
devices with an edge-to-edge
glass screen and no obviously
identifiable home button. They
also appear to have a polished
stainless-steel chassis that looks
similar in some respects to that
of the original iPhone, which
celebrates its 10th anniversary
this year. Several of the photos
show a device with a dual-
camera system on the back that
sits in its own designated rect-
angle. There are separate vol-
ume buttons and a mute switch
on the left side of the phone as
well as a power button and a
tray for the sim card on the right.
One noticeable difference is that
power switch is longer. — Busi-
ness Insider
Leaks ShowBig iPhoneRejig on way
ANIRBAN
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel plansto enter the home automation orsmart home segment soon withits Internet of Things (IoT) andmachine-to-machine solutions ina move aimed at expanding itsrevenue base by allowing users tocontrol elements such as light-ing, heating, air conditioning,music and security systemsthrough smartphones.
Home automation is an areathat offers retail customer usecases, Harmeen Mehta, groupchief information officer atBharti Airtel, told ET. “We have aquad play – broadband, fixed line,wireless, DTH. We are in millionsof homes. So, that’s really what wewant to bank on,” she said, with-out elaborating on products thattelecom operator may offer.
The segment is in its nascentstages and real application of usecases and processes have juststarted to crystallise, Mehta said.“The next two years are going todefine the space,” she said.
According to a study by ZionMarket Research, the globalsmart home market is expected to
grow at a CAGR of 14.5% between2017 and 2022. The market revenueof $24.10 billion in 2016 is expectedto grow up to $53.45 billion by 2022.
Nearly 90% of the Indian marketis comprised of apartment and de-veloper projects, while the bal-ance is comprised of independenthomes and villas. Geographically,the market is still metro-centric,with Delhi, Mumbai, Pune andBengaluru accounting for 80-90%of the market, said Rohan Dhami-ja, head for India and South Asia
at telecom consulting firm Analy-sys Mason.
He said that key use cases inhome automation include heat-ing, ventilation, air conditioning,lighting, entertainment and safe-ty including CCTV and alarms.
“Amid tariff wars, telcos willlook forward to loop in users by of-fering multiple services as part oftheir customer retention strate-gy,” said Tarun Pathak, associatedirector, Mobile Devices and Eco-systems.
Airtel Tunes into SmartHome Space with IoT Push
HOMING IN Co plans tech to allow users to control lighting, heating & security systems
Our Bureau
Mumbai: Hexaware Technolo-gies reported a better-than-ex-pected first-quarter profit,helped by strong growth in itsbanking and financial servicessegment, and maintained its dou-ble-digit growth outlook for therest of the year, sending itsshares up to as much as 4%.
IT firm posted a profit of $17.23million for quarter ended March,down 5.1% sequentially. Revenuegrew 4.2% to $144.75 million.Analysts, on average, were ex-pecting a profit of $17.02 millionon revenue of $145.38 million, ac-cording to a Bloomberg poll.
Revenue from Hexaware’slargest vertical — banking and fi-nancial services (BFS) segment— grew 5.6% sequentially, while
traditional seasonal slownesswhich is exacerbated by protec-tionist visa rules in the US andmore than 5% gain in Rupeeagainst the dollar this year.
"Hexaware is committed to re-duce dependence on H-1B. If ev-ery year if we can reduce a fewpercentage points, we wouldhave done well," said Srikrishna.“We will invest more in hiringand training locally.”
that from healthcare & insur-ance dropped about a per cent.
“On the long-term basis, BFSand healthcare and insurancewill continue to outgrow compa-ny average. From service lineperspective, we think infrastruc-ture management services andbusiness process services willgrow fast,” chief executive RSrikrishna said.
Indian IT companies are seeing
Hexaware Q1Profit Beats Market View
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CLOSER LOOK
Air conditioning Music
$24.10bMarket revenue of smart home market in 2016
90% Of mar-ket comprised of apartment projects
Lighting Heating
$53.45bExpected growth in market reve-nue by 2022
Coming to Your Home
80-90%Market is metro-centric
Securitysystems
CONTROL THESE USING YOUR PHONE
ANOOP TIWARICorporate-VP, HCL
The acquisition strength-ens HCL’s capabilities inmortgage BPO services,loan fulfilment and debtservicing space
Pune: Consulting firm PwC is launchingPwC Insights as a Service (PIAS), a newmodel that will allow more customers to ac-cess advanced analytics and data science ca-pabilities at a low cost. Raman Bhushan,partner, advanced analytics and data sci-ence, PwC India, told ET that India was thefirst market where this service was beinglaunched.
“PwC India has taken the lead and nextyear this would be taken to other marketsglobally. It is a big focus area for us and willopen up the middle and bottom of the pyra-mid,” said Bhushan.
To be offered on a pay-as-you-go basis, theplatform comes with PwC IP built on top of itthat would allow customers to undertake arange of tasks, including data visualisa-tion, machine learning and big data analyt-ics. According to Bhushan, this would helpmake advanced analytics more accessible tomid and small-sized companies who haveheld back because of the costs involved.
“A lot of MSMEs do not have the capex bud-get for advanced analytics even if they want
to adopt it. This is an opex model where theycan pay quarterly or monthly as per their us-age,” he said. This model would also tackleanother problem most companies face whenit comes to data science—talent availability.PwC has a team of about 800 data scientistswho exclusively work for Indian clients.
In addition to MSMEs that would use thisas a stepping stone to adopting advancedanalytics, Bhushan also expects this to bepopular with companies in more mature in-dustries like financial services, telecom andretail, who have already been using analyt-ics for the last few years.
PwC Insights to OfferBig Data at Low Cost Platform will allow
customers to undertake a
range of tasks, including data
visualisation & data analytics
DATAWISE
Service will make advancedanalytics more accessible tomid and small-sized compa-nies who have held back because of the costs involved
NYTNS
California: On a recent afternoon, anaerospace engineer working for a smallSilicon Valley company called Kitty Hawkpiloted a flying car above a scenic lakeabout 100 miles north of San Francisco.
Kitty Hawk’s flying car, if you insistedon calling it a “car,” looked like somethingLuke Skywalker would have built out ofspare parts. It was an open-seated, 220-pound contraption with room for one per-son, powered by eight battery-poweredpropellers that howled as loudly as aspeedboat.
The tech industry, as we are often told, isfond of disrupting things, and lately theautomakers have been a big target. Carsthat use artificial intelligence to drivethemselves, for example, have been in de-velopment for a few years and can be spot-ted on roads in a number of cities. Andnow, coming onto the radar screen, are fly-ing machines that do not exactly look like
your father’s Buick with wings. Morethan a dozen startups backed by deep-pocketed industry figures like LarryPage, a Google founder — along with bigaerospace firms like Airbus, the ride-hail-ing company Uber and even the govern-ment of Dubai — are taking on the dreamof the flying car. The approaches by thedifferent companies vary and the realisa-
tion of their competing visions seems farin the future, but they have one thing incommon: a belief that one day regularpeople should be able to fly their own vehi-cles around town. There are challenges,no doubt, with both the technology andgovernment regulations. Perhaps the big-gest hurdle will be convincing the publicthat the whole idea isn’t crazy.
“I love the idea of being able to go out intomy backyard and hop into my flying car,”said Brad Templeton, a Silicon Valley en-trepreneur who has served as a consult-ant on Google’s self-driving project. “Ihate the idea of my next-door neighborhaving one.”
Kitty Hawk, the company backed byPage, is trying to be one of the first out ofthe gate and plans to start selling its vehi-cle by the end of the year. The companyhas attracted intense interest because ofPage and its chief executive, SebastianThrun, an influential technologist andself-driving car pioneer who is the found-ing director of Google’s X lab.
A Flying Machine of Your DreamsA bunch of startups are trying to build a personal aircraft you could fly around town
Kitty Hawk Flyer in action
Airtel’s rival Reliance Jio Info-comm is also planning to launchfibre-to-home powered home au-tomation that will allow users toconvert basic electronic productsinto smart products with the in-stallation of smart plugs. Thesesmart plugs will allow users tocontrol the entire home with thehelp of smartphones or tablets.
Jio is also planning to launch acomplete suite for home surveil-lance comprising smart camera,smart doorbell, smart lock andchime alarm. All these productscan be managed from mobile de-vices, ET had earlier reported.
Mehta said, “Through our inno-vation arm, we are looking howwe are going to take this muchdeeper, and embrace that. It issuch a vast space. You would needto see where enterprise custom-ers are, and which solutions makesense for them.”
The emergence of IoT will drivedata uptake, according to Mehta.“With house and cars getting con-nected, and everything getting au-tomated… IoT will be the majordata driver. In the short run, prob-ably apps are going to drive data asIndia is embracing more of theapp world,” she said.
