As a tech services company, Ola has never been in hardcore manufacturing. And unlike in ride hailing, which is a two-player market (Uber is the only other competitor), in two-wheelers it faces many entrenched players. But most of all, rivals say Ola's targets are out of sync with most, even ambitious, projections.
The writing has been on the wall for some time and it showed up prominently during the festival-season sales last year, when Meesho toppled Amazon to become the second-largest player in order share. During the sales season, 60 per cent of the orders Meesho received were from tier-4 cities and beyond. According to a report by consulting firm Redseer, festival-season sales last year were driven primarily by tier-2 and tier-3 cities, with 64 per cent of the shoppers coming from those.
The industry is expecting double-digit growth on a year-on-year basis, helped by a possible price correction after softening of raw material inputs and factors such as positive sentiments, pent up demand and improving economic conditions. Besides, a shift in consumer behaviour from price consciousness towards technologically advanced premium products with quality, value proposition and safety aspects leading to a rise in demand for home automation products is making the industry upbeat. With the government's production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for white goods, which has witnessed a committed investment of Rs 4,614 crore, in place, many manufacturers are gearing up to make the most out of the opportunity as well as take steps towards reducing their dependency on imports and make products more affordable.
Chai Sahay, an artificial intelligence-based mobile app, will be primarily used to issue advisory, disseminate information related to various schemes of the board for the sector as well as provide real-time weather updates, says Avishek Rakshit.
The demand for full-stack developers in India have seen a 20% increase in the last one year.
With the demand for lower costs in process driven activities and a move away from the high rate, billable hours of legal services, AI platforms are being used internationally in many legal tasks.
Indian firms selling SAAS products have got a bonanza as companies meet, manage and sell remotely. The top five firms - Zoho, Freshworks HighRadius, Druva, and Icertis - account for 33 per cent of the market share. Chennai, India's SAAS centre, alone generates $1 billion in annual revenue. Yuvraj Malik explains how these companies are planning their next phase of growth.
'As the demand for transferable skills that can be remotely applied increases, the need for tech-based courses is on the rise/'
Tech giant Microsoft will set up its largest and fourth data centre in India at Hyderabad with an investment outlay of over Rs 15,000 crore over a period of 15 years. "I am very happy to say today that Hyderabad will be the destination for Microsoft's largest Data Centre investment in India with an investment of over Rs 15,000 crore over a period of 15 years. "This will be one of the largest FDIs that Telangana has attracted," Telangana Minister for IT and Industries KT Rama Rao on Monday said at an event marking the announcement of Microsoft's latest data centre region in Hyderabad.
A culture of science and innovation must be embedded in society wherein people not only use new technology but understand it as well. Without this, obscurantism and blind faith can sit side by side with digital technology and, in fact, use the same technology to reinforce their hold on people, says Shram Saran.
Venture Intelligence data shows that during January to July 2020, investors infused $998 million in 31 deals. The total number of deals reported in 2019 was 42 worth $404 million.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who landed in Ahmedabad on Thursday morning on a two-day India visit, was accorded a grand welcome at the airport in Ahmedabad. Soon after, he visited Sabarmati Ashram in the company of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupesh Patel.
'Health will continue to be at the centre of the government's attention as it underpins economic recovery and our collective well being.'
The government has created a comprehensive budget with sharp focus on sustaining economic activity and investment but more clarity is needed on areas like taxation framework for adopting remote working on a long-term basis, IT body Nasscom said on Monday. The industry association noted that the IT/ITeS (Information Technology-enabled Services) industry has been a key driver of growth and jobs in 2020 and there is an opportunity to significantly accelerate it further. "For the IT sector, one of the biggest needs ahead of us is the development of future business models, with hybrid working becoming a reality. "We look forward for the government to provide clarity on providing a framework in direct taxes and indirect taxes for the industry to adopt WFH/remote working on a long-term basis," Nasscom said in a statement.
Having the right know-how and being able to adapt to changing trendsd and industry shifts can make all the difference to how a business functions today.
The Yuan Wang 5 can easily monitor the Indian coast while operating in international waters. She does not have to enter a port in Sri Lanka to fulfill this mission, points out Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
If you are an expert in programming languages, statistics and algebra, then a career in AI and ML is worth a shot in 2021.
Tech Mahindra is building 5G use cases with US-based hospitals to help manage devices remotely and eventually manage remote surgeries that will require seamless network connectivity.
In an otherwise agriculture- and public health-focused Union Budget 2018-19, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain technology, internet of things -- jargons that found little or no mention in the previous Budgets -- managed to make their presence felt.
Even at the entry-level, professionals who have proficiency in emerging technologies will have an edge over others in these domains.
It came as a surprise to all stakeholders - competing telecom companies (telcos), most analysts and even the government's internal projections on revenues from the 5G auctions. Reliance Jio disrupted all calculations by paying a stiff Rs 40,000 crore to buy 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700-MHz band, globally considered a key band for efficient 5G service coverage, along with the default 3.5 GHz band and the ultra-high speed and low-latency millimetre band of 26 GHz band. So what made Jio pay almost 45 per cent of its total spend in this auction for the 700 MHz band - much more than what it rustled up even for the 3.5 GHz band?
By 2026, around 25 per cent of the global population may spend at least an hour a day on Metaverse. This will open the doors for many businesses, the NFTs market will spread, and Web 3.0 will attract more investment.
Engineering graduates specialising in artificial intelligence and machine learning can earn up to 24 lakh a year, says Saran Balasundaram, founder and CEO, HanDigital, a talent consulting firm.
New models of skilling will provide both jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities to inspire recipients to capture the jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities they seek and provide them the agency to stay on and improve on their skills on the job, says Ganesh Natarajan.
It is imperative that young aspirants consider career options that will guarantee job security -- roles that are centred around technology.
There will be a huge market for healthcare professionals, data and security experts and digital marketers, says Navneet Singh, founder, Avsar HR Services.
Only nine of the airline's 370 daily flights were making profits.
With the lockdown in force, live online teaching has become the order of the day, report Peerzada Abrar and Sai Ishwar.
British Airways, Lufthansa, Etihad and Singapore Airlines are scouting for an Indian partner that meets the net worth criterion
Employers are now looking to hire professionals who can demonstrate their skills rather than reel off a catalogue of undirected theoretical qualifications.
Akash Ambani's first big job as he takes over as chairman of Reliance Jio, the group's telecom arm, is a no-brainer - he has to get his company through the long-awaited 5G auctions that are a few weeks away. But his bigger job, analysts said, will be to lead the transformation of the telecom company into a tech giant, a process that is underway as it seeks to list in the US. Insiders said there has been plenty of debate within the company's top executives on the auction strategy.
Indian companies seem to be trailing behind. They will have to catch up by reskilling the workforce and ramping up investments.
Indian firms, which experts say stand to gain from the European Union's upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), are struggling to understand the policies.
The one common thread that we see across these jobs is that they are all highly human-centric, points out Ramesh Kumar.
In the age of robots and automation, skills such as people management, coordination and negotiations will be relevant, says Babita Shekhar.
NITI Aayog recommendations cite the need for greater industry-academia collaboration to meet skill demand
The new rules will bring down people's mobility and as a result flexibility in scaling businesses
'India missed the software products revolution (and now is in danger of missing the platform revolution), complacent that we are the software experts of the world based on IT services prowess,' points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
ignio has more than 75 patents filed in the artificial intelligence, machine-learning and intelligent-automation space
"We are committed to building a new India. We have to do this as early as possible," he said.
