India Prepares for A Facial Recognition Tech-fused Future

Authorities in India have started discussions with various private companies about the potential of adopting facial recognition technology all across the 28 states. The idea behind this huge project from the government is to simplify the identification of criminals, missing children and even the deceased by the technology.

According to authorities, the implementation of this technology is going to shore up the issue that India is facing in terms of lack of staff in its police departments across its densely populated cities.

To bring it as an example, there are no more than 138 police officers per 100,000 citizens in India. If we try to compare it to the whole population, that’s not even 2 million staff. Consider the crime rate and we get an issue where there are simply not enough police officers in the country to respond to every report.

The facial recognition technology would allow the police force to narrow down and speed up their investigation process and concentrate the rate of success.

However, based on the reports of several tests that were conducted in the country, even the most sophisticated software used in counties like the United States and Great Brittain has a 2% chance of making the correct guess.

Regardless of the success rate, the Indian government is determined to continue its attempts at implementing the technology.

Similar developments in different countries

The most interesting case about this is that India is not the only country trying to implement such technology as fast as possible. There are other countries such as the United States, UK, China and Australia that are having heated debates on whether or not the facial recognition technology is moral or not.

The most interesting case of all is Australia as the country is trying to target a specific industry with this technology rather than ensure social security.

There have been talks in the Australian parliament that facial recognition technology should be applied to industries such as adult content and online gambling websites.

The argument behind the regulation is that these websites are constantly being accessed by underage Australians, thus defeating the purpose of having the 18+ law on them. According to the deputies that drafted this bill, the facial recognition technology would allow adult content and casino websites to check the facial structure of the person trying to gain access to the platform.

The software will be developed to identify the facial features of people under 18 as well as over 18. However, private companies are fearing that these technologies are not reliable in these cases simply because an underaged person can easily fool it. And giving access to underage users under such laws would warrant millions in fines and ultimately make these companies go broke.

Considering the data from Indian authorities that the success rate was only 2%, it’s likely that the software proposed by Australia is going to have similar issues.

What other issues does the software face in India?

Another issue that facial recognition could potentially face in India is the complex diversity of Indian nationals. The skin tone, facial structure and multiple ethnic minorities in the country could distort the accuracy of the software.

Furthermore, it’s not like India is knowns for the density of its CCTV cameras, which creates an issue of just having not enough footage to properly measure the success rate of the technology.

Even more, issues are created by existing CCTV cameras which are quickly losing their quality, thus displaying images that are simply impossible to read for the software.

Overall, if India wants to fully implement this new technology and transition to its rapid development, there are quite a lot of software issues they have to solve before they do so. But right now, the 100% implementation is still in debate, meaning that excessive speculation is just out of the question.

Get Your Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer Certification and Pass 1Z0-808 Exam with Examsnap

IT is a relatively new and at the same time one of the fastest growing fields in the world. The applications of computer science are numerous, and that is what encourages people to keep on researching new things in the field. There are a few companies that are currently leading the market of technology developments. One of such companies is Oracle which has been around for quite some time now and has produced some of the greatest cloud and database technologies we use every day.

Oracle is much more than a company that produces computer software and technologies. Oracle is also known for offering a number of IT certifications. For those who do not know, Oracle is the birthplace of Java, therefore it would only be fitting for Oracle to offer a certification that revolves around this programming language. This article is dedicated to Oracle Certified Associate, Java SE 8 Programmer, one of the most sought-after Oracle credentials on the associate level. We will also discuss the details of 1Z0-808, the only exam you need to clear in order to get OCA Java SE 8 Programmer.

Oracle Certified Associate, Java SE 8 Programmer

This associate-level credential is designed to validate the candidate’s basic knowledge of Java fundamentals. This credential equips you with the skills necessary to prepare the ground for your future Java developer career. To get certified, you need to pass just one exam, and its code is 1Z0-808. Below you will find a description of 1Z0-808: Java SE 8 Programmer I and some tips to prepare for your certification test.

Oracle Java SE 8 Programmer I Exam: Things to Know

Before you schedule your Oracle 1Z0-808 exam, there are some things that you need to know. Oracle 1Z0-808 is a difficult exam and that is why it is important to go in prepared. All of the questions that you will see in the exam are multiple-choice, and the test consists of a total of 70 questions. Each candidate is given exactly 150 minutes to answer all of these questions. 150 minutes might seem a lot, but you still need to manage your time properly. Don’t rush, take the appropriate amount of time to answer each question. If you wish to pass the exam, then you must ensure that you get at least 65%.

Books for Oracle 1Z0-808 Exam

When you are preparing for Oracle 1Z0-808 exam, then you will need all the help that you can get. So, you should not ignore any books that you find. There are a number of books that you can find on this topic, however, it would be very difficult to filter out the best ones. So, here you will find some of the best books to refer during your 1Z0-808 preparation.

1. The first book that you should turn your attention to is the OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide authored by Mala Gupta. The book is well-written and most importantly, it is easy to understand. The writer has properly explained the latest features of Java 8 with a lot of diagrams, flowcharts, and other visual aids. The book covers all the topics that are part of Oracle 1Z0-808 test and has a few additional chapters which reveal interesting details about Java.


2. OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide is the next book that you should consider. If you don’t want to rely solely on online learning platforms, then this book is a great alternative. It is written by Scott Selikoff and Jeanne Boyarsky, and they have done an immaculate job at covering all the main 1Z0-808 topics. The book contains a lot of practice examples explaining all the necessary concepts of Java.

Apart from the books, you can also opt for instructor-led and online courses offered by Oracle.

Prepare with Examsnap

If you are still confused about how you are going to prepare for Oracle 1Z0-808 exam, then you should consider using the Examsnap website. By purchasing the Examsnap preparation bundle for this test, you will get access to a lot of useful resources. The Examsnap bundle comes with a ton of video lectures and practice questions. Remember that 1Z0-808 is completely based on multiple-choice questions, which means that you will have to answer quickly. By taking practice tests from Examsnap, you can train yourself to answer correctly in the given time limit. Time management is another important thing that you need to keep in mind.

My Experience with Oracle 1Z0-808 Exam

My preparation for 1Z0-808 exam was an eye-opening experience. The first thing that I did was to enroll in an online course by Examsnap, and it was one of the most important decisions. The best thing about the course is that you get firsthand information from a specialist.

The next thing that I would advise is that when you are working with Java, you need to keep an eye out for syntactical errors. Also, it is quite difficult to understand certain concepts of Java in a short span of time, and this is where flowcharts and UML diagrams can be helpful.

Conclusion

OCA Java SE 8 Programmer is currently one of the most popular certifications that you can find. By passing 1Z0-808 exam, you will become an Oracle Certified Associate, and this will open a lot of new doors for you in the future.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [09-14 October]

If you had a busy week on your hands, which didn't leave you much time to remain updated with the things happening in the world of tech, don't you worry, we have got you covered. IndianWeb2.com brings to you the tech wrap up of this week.

1) Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Launches Tech Education Platform Woz U

While Steve Jobs went on to become the public face and showman of the company, Wozniak presumed the role of being the geek-behind-the-scenes. After building some of the most popular products for the company, the Silicon Valley legend left Apple on February 9, 1985 as a full-time employee to pursue outside interests. The week saw Wozniak launching his latest initiative, an online learning platform called Woz U.

Based out of Arizona, Woz U will initially start as an online learning platform that will focus on both students and companies that will eventually hire those students. Eventually, Wozniak aims to launch physical locations for learning in more than 30 cities globally. It also plans on introducing an accelerator program in 2019 “to identify and develop elite tech talent”.

The platform’s main aim is to provide you a personalized approach to coding and tech education designed to get you through the curriculum faster so that you can get into the workforce quicker, and start changing the world.

2) Facebook To Sell Virtual Reality Headset

In what could be seen as a real gift of innovation for Virtual Reality lovers from the house of Facebook, the social media networking giant will soon launch a new virtual reality headset that won’t require a separate computer to operate.

Taking the podium at a conference for virtual reality developers in America, Facebook’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the new headset, which is called Oculus Go, will allow more mobile uses than the company’s existing Oculus Rift product.

Priced at $199, Oculus Go will be shipped early next year, too late for this year’s holiday season but likely to stay ahead of rivals.

3) Chinese E-Commerce Giant Builds The World’s Biggest Delivery Drone

China has once again done it. While others are still simply talking about it, China’s JD.com, also called Jingdong, is soon going to have super-sized delivery drones at the service of its customers. Considered China’s largest online retailer, JD.com has a national distribution network that matches the coverage of global ecommerce giant Amazon.

Being pitched as world’s largest civilian delivery drone, JD.com’s robots are going to be three-engine, autonomous, vertical-takeoff drones that will be capable of carrying a payload of over 1 ton up to 186 miles. Considering it will be delivering retail packages, the weight bracket seems practical.

4) Learn Basic AI With Google’s Latest Tool

While the jury is still out if Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be a good thing or bad thing for humanity, one thing that we have all wondered is how exactly does the whole thing work? If you’re one of those who has always been curious about understanding the way machine learning works, Google might have something interesting to offer.

Introducing Google’s in-browser experiment called Teachable Machine. Being considered a simple two-minute summary of what a lot of modern AI can or can’t do, Google’s new browser experiment lets one use their webcam to train an extremely basic AI program.

This experiment lets anyone explore how machine learning works, in a fun, hands-on way. One can teach a machine to use their camera, live in the browser– with absolutely no coding required whatsoever. It basically involves training a neural network locally on your device, without sending any images to a server. That’s how it responds so quickly.

5) Mastercard Sets Up Its First Innovation Lab In India; To Work Alongside Local Fintech Industry

American multinational financial services corporation Mastercard unveiled its first innovation lab in Pune, India this week. Mastercard Labs, Pune, is the ninth such lab established by the company globally, and the second one in Asia Pacific after Singapore.

By opening a lab in the country, the leader in global payments is hoping to forge relationships in the country’s local fintech industry on future technology breakthroughs in digital payments, data manipulation, financial inclusion and fraud prevention.

According to Microsoft, the plan for the new Pune lab is to ensure that it not only acts as an incubation hub for experimenting with new payment related technologies but also double up as a support base for startup partnerships through the card scheme’s Start Path programme. The lab will exclusively work on collaborating and co-creating with India-based fintech experts, technologists, developers and academia.

6) Amazon Files Patent For Deploying Delivery Drones in India

Global ecommerce player Amazon is certain on firming its ground in Indian subcontinent as just after months of filing a patent in India for drone technology with respect to propeller safety, the American company has now filed papers for another patent application in India.

This time Amazon has filed patent for exclusive rights on multi-scale fiducials, black and white marks on any object for the unmanned aerial vehicles to identify them from different distances, according to a media report.

As per the patent application, the aerial vehicles would also be capable of identifying aircrafts and other objects flying in the Indian skies.


If the patent comes through, the America ecommerce biggie will be able to use the drones for localisation, tracking and detecting orientation of objects, identifying the target. Another usage could be identifying other drones and UAVs.

7) Govt Planning To Sell Petrol, Diesel Online

Now here’s one government decision that all of us might be able to get behind. In its mission to give its Digital India initiative a much needed push, the government is contemplating putting petrol and diesel along with its various products on ecommerce platform.

Yes, this means, very soon you might no longer have to wait in those long, long petrol pump lines and waste your prestigious time. Just like online shopping for your clothes, electronics and grocery, you might soon be able to shop for petrol and diesel online.

Taking the podium at the recently concluded India Mobile Congress, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan revealed that his ministry plans on connecting oil with IT and telecommunications soon by putting all petroleum products on e-commerce platform.

8) India No.2 Source Country in IoT Attacks Globally

While there are people excited about the rise of IoT and its devices, there are others who are a little overwhelmed thinking about the havoc that can be created if botnet building attackers end up choosing unregulated IoT devices as their cyber weapon delivery system of choice.

According to the report by the American firm, while Spain comes at the top with 25.5 million attacks, the Indian subcontinent occupies the second position globally in the top 20 attack source countries of 2017.

Apart from attack vectors originating from the Indian subcontinent, the report also highlighted the presence of Persirai-infected IP cameras across the country.

For the uninitiated, Persirai is a malware which attacks IP cameras with DDoS attacks.

9) Artificial Intelligence To Add 2.3 Mn Jobs By 2020: Gartner

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an intrusive part of our lives. From aviation to writing to shopping, AI has slowly entered various verticals of our lives and made them faster and better. But, at what cost?

According to U.S.-based research and advisory firm Gartner, while AI will add 2.3 million jobs globally to become a positive ‘net job motivator’ by the year 2020, but it will also end up eliminating more jobs than it creates through 2019. However, here’s the silver line. The firm predicts that the number of jobs created due to AI in 2020 will be able to overcome the deficit. The predictions were revealed during Gartner’s top ten predictions for next year.

The firm further highlighted that the net job creation or elimination will vary greatly industry to industry. While some industries might have to go through overall job loss, others might have to face net job loss for only a few years; and some others, such as healthcare and education, might not have to experience net job loss at all.

10) Global IoT Market To Hit $1.29 Trillion By 2020: Report

Digital technology like Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to transform the way businesses generate and consume data and the worldwide IoT market spend is expected to grow to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, says an IDC-Aeris report.

The report highlighted that the worldwide IoT market spend will grow from USD 625.2 billion in 2015 to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6 per cent.

The report further noted that the installed base of IoT end points will grow to more than 30 billion by 2020, from 12.1 billion at 2015-end.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [09-14 October]

If you had a busy week on your hands, which didn't leave you much time to remain updated with the things happening in the world of tech, don't you worry, we have got you covered. www.indianweb2.com brings to you the tech wrap up of this week.

1) Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Launches Tech Education Platform Woz U

While Steve Jobs went on to become the public face and showman of the company, Wozniak presumed the role of being the geek-behind-the-scenes. After building some of the most popular products for the company, the Silicon Valley legend left Apple on February 9, 1985 as a full-time employee to pursue outside interests. The week saw Wozniak launching his latest initiative, an online learning platform called Woz U.

Based out of Arizona, Woz U will initially start as an online learning platform that will focus on both students and companies that will eventually hire those students. Eventually, Wozniak aims to launch physical locations for learning in more than 30 cities globally. It also plans on introducing an accelerator program in 2019 “to identify and develop elite tech talent”.

The platform’s main aim is to provide you a personalized approach to coding and tech education designed to get you through the curriculum faster so that you can get into the workforce quicker, and start changing the world.

2) Facebook To Sell Virtual Reality Headset

In what could be seen as a real gift of innovation for Virtual Reality lovers from the house of Facebook, the social media networking giant will soon launch a new virtual reality headset that won’t require a separate computer to operate.

Taking the podium at a conference for virtual reality developers in America, Facebook’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the new headset, which is called Oculus Go, will allow more mobile uses than the company’s existing Oculus Rift product.

Priced at $199, Oculus Go will be shipped early next year, too late for this year’s holiday season but likely to stay ahead of rivals.

3) Chinese E-Commerce Giant Builds The World’s Biggest Delivery Drone

China has once again done it. While others are still simply talking about it, China’s JD.com, also called Jingdong, is soon going to have super-sized delivery drones at the service of its customers. Considered China’s largest online retailer, JD.com has a national distribution network that matches the coverage of global ecommerce giant Amazon.

Being pitched as world’s largest civilian delivery drone, JD.com’s robots are going to be three-engine, autonomous, vertical-takeoff drones that will be capable of carrying a payload of over 1 ton up to 186 miles. Considering it will be delivering retail packages, the weight bracket seems practical.

4) Learn Basic AI With Google’s Latest Tool

While the jury is still out if Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be a good thing or bad thing for humanity, one thing that we have all wondered is how exactly does the whole thing work? If you’re one of those who has always been curious about understanding the way machine learning works, Google might have something interesting to offer.

Introducing Google’s in-browser experiment called Teachable Machine. Being considered a simple two-minute summary of what a lot of modern AI can or can’t do, Google’s new browser experiment lets one use their webcam to train an extremely basic AI program.

This experiment lets anyone explore how machine learning works, in a fun, hands-on way. One can teach a machine to use their camera, live in the browser– with absolutely no coding required whatsoever. It basically involves training a neural network locally on your device, without sending any images to a server. That’s how it responds so quickly.

5) Mastercard Sets Up Its First Innovation Lab In India; To Work Alongside Local Fintech Industry

American multinational financial services corporation Mastercard unveiled its first innovation lab in Pune, India this week. Mastercard Labs, Pune, is the ninth such lab established by the company globally, and the second one in Asia Pacific after Singapore.

By opening a lab in the country, the leader in global payments is hoping to forge relationships in the country’s local fintech industry on future technology breakthroughs in digital payments, data manipulation, financial inclusion and fraud prevention.

According to Microsoft, the plan for the new Pune lab is to ensure that it not only acts as an incubation hub for experimenting with new payment related technologies but also double up as a support base for startup partnerships through the card scheme’s Start Path programme. The lab will exclusively work on collaborating and co-creating with India-based fintech experts, technologists, developers and academia.

6) Amazon Files Patent For Deploying Delivery Drones in India

Global ecommerce player Amazon is certain on firming its ground in Indian subcontinent as just after months of filing a patent in India for drone technology with respect to propeller safety, the American company has now filed papers for another patent application in India.

This time Amazon has filed patent for exclusive rights on multi-scale fiducials, black and white marks on any object for the unmanned aerial vehicles to identify them from different distances, according to a media report.

As per the patent application, the aerial vehicles would also be capable of identifying aircrafts and other objects flying in the Indian skies.


If the patent comes through, the America ecommerce biggie will be able to use the drones for localisation, tracking and detecting orientation of objects, identifying the target. Another usage could be identifying other drones and UAVs.

7) Govt Planning To Sell Petrol, Diesel Online

Now here’s one government decision that all of us might be able to get behind. In its mission to give its Digital India initiative a much needed push, the government is contemplating putting petrol and diesel along with its various products on ecommerce platform.

Yes, this means, very soon you might no longer have to wait in those long, long petrol pump lines and waste your prestigious time. Just like online shopping for your clothes, electronics and grocery, you might soon be able to shop for petrol and diesel online.

Taking the podium at the recently concluded India Mobile Congress, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan revealed that his ministry plans on connecting oil with IT and telecommunications soon by putting all petroleum products on e-commerce platform.

8) India No.2 Source Country in IoT Attacks Globally

While there are people excited about the rise of IoT and its devices, there are others who are a little overwhelmed thinking about the havoc that can be created if botnet building attackers end up choosing unregulated IoT devices as their cyber weapon delivery system of choice.

According to the report by the American firm, while Spain comes at the top with 25.5 million attacks, the Indian subcontinent occupies the second position globally in the top 20 attack source countries of 2017.

Apart from attack vectors originating from the Indian subcontinent, the report also highlighted the presence of Persirai-infected IP cameras across the country.

For the uninitiated, Persirai is a malware which attacks IP cameras with DDoS attacks.

9) Artificial Intelligence To Add 2.3 Mn Jobs By 2020: Gartner

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an intrusive part of our lives. From aviation to writing to shopping, AI has slowly entered various verticals of our lives and made them faster and better. But, at what cost?

According to U.S.-based research and advisory firm Gartner, while AI will add 2.3 million jobs globally to become a positive ‘net job motivator’ by the year 2020, but it will also end up eliminating more jobs than it creates through 2019. However, here’s the silver line. The firm predicts that the number of jobs created due to AI in 2020 will be able to overcome the deficit. The predictions were revealed during Gartner’s top ten predictions for next year.

The firm further highlighted that the net job creation or elimination will vary greatly industry to industry. While some industries might have to go through overall job loss, others might have to face net job loss for only a few years; and some others, such as healthcare and education, might not have to experience net job loss at all.

10) Global IoT Market To Hit $1.29 Trillion By 2020: Report

Digital technology like Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to transform the way businesses generate and consume data and the worldwide IoT market spend is expected to grow to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, says an IDC-Aeris report.

The report highlighted that the worldwide IoT market spend will grow from USD 625.2 billion in 2015 to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6 per cent.

The report further noted that the installed base of IoT end points will grow to more than 30 billion by 2020, from 12.1 billion at 2015-end.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [02 – 07 October]

The world of tech had a busy week. From new announcements, to updates on the emerging technologies to brand new launches, a lot happened this week. In order to keep you updated, we at IndianWeb2 bring to you the top 10 things that happened in the tech world this week.

1) Here’s First Beer Named By Artificial Intelligence

When Brewers at Old Nation Brewing Company couldn’t find the right name for their new double dry hopped saison, they decided to turn to neural networks for help and well, they succeeded. Introducing The Fine Stranger: World’s very first beer named by a neural network.
According to the Michigan Brewery, considering the drink is a “blend of Old World and New” and combines a “strong, peppery, fruity Belgian Saison yeast strain with the low-bitterness/high-flavor hop goodness of the New England style,” the name The Fine Stranger suits the beer quite well.

The neural network naming method was introduced to the brewery by research scientist Janelle Shane, who makes use of the char-rnn neural network framework to train the computer to “speak” using only beer words, then turns on the creativity and makes it think.

For Old Nation Brewing Company, Shane only trained the neural network on a constrained list, including beers with the brewers’ keywords: Juice, haze, New England, Vermont, citra, Belgium, spicy, clove, saison, farmhouse, and “all these trendy new hazy IPA names.”

2) Facebook Launches ‘Context’ Button In a Bid To Fight Fake News

Social networking giant Facebook is not ready to drop its tame the fake news mission anytime soon. The Mark Zuckerberg-led company is currently testing out a new ‘Context’ button that will allow its more than 2 billion users get a little more context about the source of the news that they’re reading on the platform.

With the context button, Facebook users reading news on the platform will be able to get context on the source of a news article with just a single click without having to leave Facebook and their news feed.

The additional contextual information about a news piece will be gathered from across Facebook and other sources, such as information from the publisher’s Wikipedia entry. In cases where information is unavailable, the social networking company “will let people know, which can also be helpful context.”

3) IBM Partners With Banks For A Blockchain-Powered Trade Finance Platform

Global technology and innovation company, IBM has joined hands with five banks – UBS, Bank of Montreal, CaixaBank, Commerzbank and Erste Group – to launch a blockchain-based trade finance platform called Batavia.

To be accessed by organisations of all sizes anywhere in the world, the platform aims to
support trade finance transactions by helping banks and their clients automate the trade finance process, something which still majorly remains manual and paper-based. The platform will be powered by the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework.

According to IBM, Batavia will be supporting trade finance for transactions across all modes of trade, whether it be by land, sea or air. The software firm has decided to take the responsibility of acting as a consultant alongside transportation industry experts as well as the banks’ customers so as to ensure that the platform always remains flexible and intuitive.

4) Introducing ’emCash’ – Dubai’s Own Official Cryptocurrency

While several countries around the world are still making their stance on whether to legalise digital currency or not, Dubai is on its way to unveil its very first official state cryptocurrency.

The government of Dubai has decided to develop an encrypted blockchain-powered digital currency called emCash, which will enable the citizens of the city to pay for both government and non-government services alike.

To be developed in partnership between UK-based blockchain startup Object Tech and Emcredit, a subsidiary of Dubai Economy, emCash will be based on the currently in trend blockchain technology and would require users to download a mobile wallet called emPay on their smartphones.

5) Bias, Not Robots, Is The Real AI Danger

Tech magnate Elon Musk recently termed Artificial Intelligence (AI) as “the greatest risk we face as a civilisation.” But, Google’s AI chief, John Giannandrea, has different point of view to offer on the issue.

According to Giannandrea, it isn’t the robots that we have to worry about, it is the danger that might be lurking inside these machine-learning algorithms used to make millions of decisions every minute.

Speaking before a recent Google conference on the relationship between humans and AI systems, Giannandrea said, “The real safety question, if you want to call it that, is that if we give these systems biased data, they will be biased.”

Considering the fact that AI is currently spreading like wild fire, the problem of bias in machine learning has the potential of becoming more significant as the technology enters into more critical spheres of life such as law and medicine, and people without a deeper technical understanding of the technology are given the task of deploying it.

6) Stolen Data From Over 6,000 Indian Businesses Available On Darknet, Claims Quickheal

A forum on DarkNet is reportedly selling data stolen from over 6,000 Indian businesses that includes Internet Service Providers (ISPs), some of the key government organisations, banks and enterprises. The advertisement was recently spotted by global IT security firm Quick Heal’s Enterprise Security brand Seqrite.

In a company statement, Seqrite shared further details about the advertisement they discovered along with its partner seQtree InfoServices. According to the statement, the mastermind hacker behind the advertisement is demanding 15 Bitcoins (nearly INR 42 lakh) for the information and is offering network takedown of affected organisations for an unspecified amount.

The security firm believes that if the information falls into wrong hands, it has the potential of becoming a major tool of mass disruption.

7) BSNL To Offer Low-Cost Smartphones Bundled With Low Tariff Plans

Indian state-owned telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) after completing 17 years of its services has plans to offer low cost smartphones to its customers in the form bundled offers. Although in 2014 too BSNL had launched low cost smartphones and tablets called BSNL Penta Bharat, however, it didn’t succeed and failed miserably in front of other private low cost smartphone manufacturers such as Micromax and Spice.

This time, the news from The Hindu reveals that BSNL has tied up with Micromax and Lava, two local smartphone manufacturers that will offer some low cost handsets to the operator.The nationwide launch will follow shortly as the operator is in the process of signing the deals with Micromax and Lava from whom BSNL will source smartphones.

While the pricing of the devices have not been fixed, the operator expects the devices to be priced in the range of “Rs 2,500 or less.” Principal general manager- Hyderabad telecom district, K, Ramchand told The Hindu that the final cost is still being worked out, but the devices will be affordable.

8) IoT Alone Make 15 Million Jobs in India

In a future optimistic announcement made by India’s telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan recently in an interview, she stated that new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) have the latent potential of giving birth to 10–15 million jobs in the country even though currently the IT services sector is finding it hard to open any new job avenues for the Indian workforce.

Speaking at the recently held IoT India Congress 2017, Sundararajan took the podium and said, “In other places including Bengaluru, there have been worries about how IT sector in India will deal with new technologies and new challenges. We think, or rather it is guessed, that India can receive 10–15 Million new jobs made in IoT alone.”

She further backed his claims by explaining, “IoT has major possibility for job creation and most of these will not be made by large firms but by small companies.” Sundararajan highlights that it is the startups that are the innovative ones as they have been able to conceive solutions in sports wearable, diagnostics, and water managements. These areas which were once considered problematic have turned out to be great opportunities for the Indian startup industry.

IoT is one of the few technologies that has the real potential of changing the way the entire world works. Gartner predicts that there will be about 8.4 billion connected devices by the end of this year, a figure which has increased by a whopping 31% from 2016.

9) ISRO Will Make SpaceTech As New Frontier for Indian Entrepreneurs and Startups

In the near future, we might see space technology opening new frontier for Indian entrepreneurs and startups, according to a statement made by ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar.

Speaking at the recently concluded IIMA’s Red Brick Summit (RBS), Kumar said that there are tremendous opportunities opening up with the fast-evolving technology, and there is growing scope for collaboration between public and private sectors.

Kumar further revealed that currently there is a huge demand for location-based services and geospatial technology for various applications such as vehicle tracking.

Space technology is a technology developed by space science or the aerospace industry for use in spaceflight, satellites, or space exploration. Space technology includes spacecraft, satellites, space stations, and support infrastructure, equipment, and procedures.

10) Despite Talent, Tools India Can’t Handle Big Cyber Attacks – Report

India is a land of abundant talent. We all know that by now, but despite of having such talented workforce, the country is still unprepared to protect itself if a cyberattack to the scale of ‘WannaCrypt’ or ‘Petya’ ever hits home turf.

According to a recent IBM study conducted by Ponemon Institute, while the average cost of a data breach in 2017 decreased by 10 per cent globally when compared to the 2016 figure, but for the Indian enterprises, it grew by 12.3 percent from Rs 97.3 million in 2016 to Rs 110 million in 2017.

Elaborating on the findings of the report, John Shier, Senior Security Expert at the Abingdon, UK-headquartered Sophos, did an interview with IANS and said, “India has well-trained, well-educated and capable IT people. The country has got access to all the tools it needs to secure its systems. Yet, in the case of a big cyber attack, India is still unprepared.”

Giving solution to the problem he mentions, Shier said that the country needs to do just three simple things to fix the issue to a certain extent, he said, “It is the time to look at the procedures and make sure they are implemented to secure the data. Firstly, it is needed to see that the things are done. Secondly, it needs to be checked if the things are done correctly and thirdly, test it repeatedly to make sure what has been done is done right.”

Sher believes that by doing the basics right, the companies can helps cybersecurity firms in staying one step ahead of the criminals.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [02 – 07 October]

The world of tech had a busy week. From new announcements, to updates on the emerging technologies to brand new launches, a lot happened this week. In order to keep you updated, we at IndianWeb2 bring to you the top 10 things that happened in the tech world this week.

1) Here’s First Beer Named By Artificial Intelligence

When Brewers at Old Nation Brewing Company couldn’t find the right name for their new double dry hopped saison, they decided to turn to neural networks for help and well, they succeeded. Introducing The Fine Stranger: World’s very first beer named by a neural network.
According to the Michigan Brewery, considering the drink is a “blend of Old World and New” and combines a “strong, peppery, fruity Belgian Saison yeast strain with the low-bitterness/high-flavor hop goodness of the New England style,” the name The Fine Stranger suits the beer quite well.

The neural network naming method was introduced to the brewery by research scientist Janelle Shane, who makes use of the char-rnn neural network framework to train the computer to “speak” using only beer words, then turns on the creativity and makes it think.

For Old Nation Brewing Company, Shane only trained the neural network on a constrained list, including beers with the brewers’ keywords: Juice, haze, New England, Vermont, citra, Belgium, spicy, clove, saison, farmhouse, and “all these trendy new hazy IPA names.”

2) Facebook Launches ‘Context’ Button In a Bid To Fight Fake News

Social networking giant Facebook is not ready to drop its tame the fake news mission anytime soon. The Mark Zuckerberg-led company is currently testing out a new ‘Context’ button that will allow its more than 2 billion users get a little more context about the source of the news that they’re reading on the platform.

With the context button, Facebook users reading news on the platform will be able to get context on the source of a news article with just a single click without having to leave Facebook and their news feed.

The additional contextual information about a news piece will be gathered from across Facebook and other sources, such as information from the publisher’s Wikipedia entry. In cases where information is unavailable, the social networking company “will let people know, which can also be helpful context.”

3) IBM Partners With Banks For A Blockchain-Powered Trade Finance Platform

Global technology and innovation company, IBM has joined hands with five banks – UBS, Bank of Montreal, CaixaBank, Commerzbank and Erste Group – to launch a blockchain-based trade finance platform called Batavia.

To be accessed by organisations of all sizes anywhere in the world, the platform aims to
support trade finance transactions by helping banks and their clients automate the trade finance process, something which still majorly remains manual and paper-based. The platform will be powered by the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework.

According to IBM, Batavia will be supporting trade finance for transactions across all modes of trade, whether it be by land, sea or air. The software firm has decided to take the responsibility of acting as a consultant alongside transportation industry experts as well as the banks’ customers so as to ensure that the platform always remains flexible and intuitive.

4) Introducing ’emCash’ – Dubai’s Own Official Cryptocurrency

While several countries around the world are still making their stance on whether to legalise digital currency or not, Dubai is on its way to unveil its very first official state cryptocurrency.

The government of Dubai has decided to develop an encrypted blockchain-powered digital currency called emCash, which will enable the citizens of the city to pay for both government and non-government services alike.

To be developed in partnership between UK-based blockchain startup Object Tech and Emcredit, a subsidiary of Dubai Economy, emCash will be based on the currently in trend blockchain technology and would require users to download a mobile wallet called emPay on their smartphones.

5) Bias, Not Robots, Is The Real AI Danger

Tech magnate Elon Musk recently termed Artificial Intelligence (AI) as “the greatest risk we face as a civilisation.” But, Google’s AI chief, John Giannandrea, has different point of view to offer on the issue.

According to Giannandrea, it isn’t the robots that we have to worry about, it is the danger that might be lurking inside these machine-learning algorithms used to make millions of decisions every minute.

Speaking before a recent Google conference on the relationship between humans and AI systems, Giannandrea said, “The real safety question, if you want to call it that, is that if we give these systems biased data, they will be biased.”

Considering the fact that AI is currently spreading like wild fire, the problem of bias in machine learning has the potential of becoming more significant as the technology enters into more critical spheres of life such as law and medicine, and people without a deeper technical understanding of the technology are given the task of deploying it.

6) Stolen Data From Over 6,000 Indian Businesses Available On Darknet, Claims Quickheal

A forum on DarkNet is reportedly selling data stolen from over 6,000 Indian businesses that includes Internet Service Providers (ISPs), some of the key government organisations, banks and enterprises. The advertisement was recently spotted by global IT security firm Quick Heal’s Enterprise Security brand Seqrite.

In a company statement, Seqrite shared further details about the advertisement they discovered along with its partner seQtree InfoServices. According to the statement, the mastermind hacker behind the advertisement is demanding 15 Bitcoins (nearly INR 42 lakh) for the information and is offering network takedown of affected organisations for an unspecified amount.

The security firm believes that if the information falls into wrong hands, it has the potential of becoming a major tool of mass disruption.

7) BSNL To Offer Low-Cost Smartphones Bundled With Low Tariff Plans

Indian state-owned telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) after completing 17 years of its services has plans to offer low cost smartphones to its customers in the form bundled offers. Although in 2014 too BSNL had launched low cost smartphones and tablets called BSNL Penta Bharat, however, it didn’t succeed and failed miserably in front of other private low cost smartphone manufacturers such as Micromax and Spice.

This time, the news from The Hindu reveals that BSNL has tied up with Micromax and Lava, two local smartphone manufacturers that will offer some low cost handsets to the operator.The nationwide launch will follow shortly as the operator is in the process of signing the deals with Micromax and Lava from whom BSNL will source smartphones.

While the pricing of the devices have not been fixed, the operator expects the devices to be priced in the range of “Rs 2,500 or less.” Principal general manager- Hyderabad telecom district, K, Ramchand told The Hindu that the final cost is still being worked out, but the devices will be affordable.

8) IoT Alone Make 15 Million Jobs in India

In a future optimistic announcement made by India’s telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan recently in an interview, she stated that new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) have the latent potential of giving birth to 10–15 million jobs in the country even though currently the IT services sector is finding it hard to open any new job avenues for the Indian workforce.

Speaking at the recently held IoT India Congress 2017, Sundararajan took the podium and said, “In other places including Bengaluru, there have been worries about how IT sector in India will deal with new technologies and new challenges. We think, or rather it is guessed, that India can receive 10–15 Million new jobs made in IoT alone.”

She further backed his claims by explaining, “IoT has major possibility for job creation and most of these will not be made by large firms but by small companies.” Sundararajan highlights that it is the startups that are the innovative ones as they have been able to conceive solutions in sports wearable, diagnostics, and water managements. These areas which were once considered problematic have turned out to be great opportunities for the Indian startup industry.

IoT is one of the few technologies that has the real potential of changing the way the entire world works. Gartner predicts that there will be about 8.4 billion connected devices by the end of this year, a figure which has increased by a whopping 31% from 2016.

9) ISRO Will Make SpaceTech As New Frontier for Indian Entrepreneurs and Startups

In the near future, we might see space technology opening new frontier for Indian entrepreneurs and startups, according to a statement made by ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar.

Speaking at the recently concluded IIMA’s Red Brick Summit (RBS), Kumar said that there are tremendous opportunities opening up with the fast-evolving technology, and there is growing scope for collaboration between public and private sectors.

Kumar further revealed that currently there is a huge demand for location-based services and geospatial technology for various applications such as vehicle tracking.

Space technology is a technology developed by space science or the aerospace industry for use in spaceflight, satellites, or space exploration. Space technology includes spacecraft, satellites, space stations, and support infrastructure, equipment, and procedures.

10) Despite Talent, Tools India Can’t Handle Big Cyber Attacks – Report

India is a land of abundant talent. We all know that by now, but despite of having such talented workforce, the country is still unprepared to protect itself if a cyberattack to the scale of ‘WannaCrypt’ or ‘Petya’ ever hits home turf.

According to a recent IBM study conducted by Ponemon Institute, while the average cost of a data breach in 2017 decreased by 10 per cent globally when compared to the 2016 figure, but for the Indian enterprises, it grew by 12.3 percent from Rs 97.3 million in 2016 to Rs 110 million in 2017.

Elaborating on the findings of the report, John Shier, Senior Security Expert at the Abingdon, UK-headquartered Sophos, did an interview with IANS and said, “India has well-trained, well-educated and capable IT people. The country has got access to all the tools it needs to secure its systems. Yet, in the case of a big cyber attack, India is still unprepared.”

Giving solution to the problem he mentions, Shier said that the country needs to do just three simple things to fix the issue to a certain extent, he said, “It is the time to look at the procedures and make sure they are implemented to secure the data. Firstly, it is needed to see that the things are done. Secondly, it needs to be checked if the things are done correctly and thirdly, test it repeatedly to make sure what has been done is done right.”

Sher believes that by doing the basics right, the companies can helps cybersecurity firms in staying one step ahead of the criminals.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [18-23 September]

As the week draws to an end, let's recap the top 10 things that happened in the tech sector during the week.

1) World’s First Blockchain Phone Which Have India Connection To Start Shipping in November

With Blockchain and Bitcoin fast becoming the latest fad all around the world, it was only logical that someone invented a blockchain smartphone sooner or later.

Enter BitVault, the world’s first crypto communicator and blockchain smartphone. The BitVault is a revolutionary new product that is built around security and privacy enabled through blockchain technology.

BitVault is owned and developed by Embedded Downloads, which is considered somewhat of a pro in secure hardware and software relating to the Internet of Things. The firm, which has development offices in Limerick, Ireland and New Delhi, India, has commissioned Gurgaon-headquartered VVDN Technologies as the development and manufacturing partner for the blockchain smartphone.

Showcased earlier this year at London Fintech week, Embedded Downloads will start shipping the phone in November this year.

2) India’s First Multi-Faceted AI and Robotics Centre To Come Up in Bengaluru

The city of Bengaluru will soon become home to India’s first multi-faceted artificial intelligence and robotics centre, according to a report in the Deccan Herald. To be established within Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) campus, the centre will be working on exploring the potential of data analytics, which is one of the various emerging technology’s popular nowadays, for various ecosystems.

3) Google To Take On PayTM; Launches ‘Tez’ Mobile Payment App in India

The week saw Google finally unveiling Tez, its free mobile wallet for India. Whether it is sending money home to your family or splitting money among friends for a dinner party, Tez will let you do it all in a jiffy. Using the app, users can pay for goods securely in physical stores and online. The app links users phone directly to their bank accounts. What makes Tez standout from its competitors is its Audio QR feature, which lets users use ultrasonic sounds to exchange money, bypassing any need for NFC.

4) Hewlett Packard , PwC To Jointly Create Smart City Center In Kolkata, India

It’s time we made our cities ready for the future. While we have made our daily lives technologically equipped, with a tech or an app ready to make our lives easier and more smoother, but in the process we have largely looked over the places that we stay in, our cities. Seeing the potential that smart city technologies holds in India, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and PwC have decided to join their hands on a new project that will work towards creating a center of excellence (CoE) in the city of Kolkata.

The CoE will work towards using the vast possibilities that Internet of Things (IoT) technologies has to offer and optimise things for the city administrators so that they can offer their best services to the citizens of their cities.

5) Rise of AI – 1,000 Indian Firms Including Startups Sign Up For IBM’s Watson Platform

American multinational technology company IBM has revealed that more than 1,000 Indian firms are currently making use of its popular Watson Internet of Things platform, according to a report in the Economic Times. IBM considers some of India’s most popular companies like Tata Steel, Reliance Group, Tech Mahindra, Maruti-Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, KPIT, Arrow Electronics, Kone, Acculi Labs, Avanijal Agri Automation and Schneider Electric India among its customers and partners.

IBM’s new Watson Internet of Things (IoT) is a cognitive system that learns from, and infuses intelligence into the physical world. It is a data analytics and cognitive artificial-intelligence (AI) platform that draws insights from enormous amount of data collected through sensors placed on machines and devices.


In addition to the Indian companies and startups, IBM is also working with several Indian states and government bodies on asset optimisation, water management and precision agriculture projects.

6) Intel Has Invested Over $1B in AI Startups

California-based Intel is considered a tech major for a reason. Intel’s innovation in cloud computing, data center, Internet of Things, and PC solutions have and are still powering the smart and connected digital world that we live in today. The best thing about the company is, that it doesn’t stop. After ruling the semiconductor chip market, the tech company is now vying to become the “the AI platform of choice.”

In order to realise its Artificial Intelligence (AI) mission, the American multinational corporation and technology company has already invested billions of dollars in developing machines that could be one day capable of carrying out tasks normally earmarked for humans.

Confirming the company’s enthusiasm about the emerging technology, Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich in an op-ed published earlier this week revealed that Intel Capital, which is Intel’s capital investment fund, has already put in over $1 billion in startups that are working towards advancing the course of AI. This includes Data Robot, Lumiata and Mighty AI.

7) Nasscom Launches IoT Skill Course for Techies in India

Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the most popular technologies that we have today. Though a lot of us are employing the technology in our daily lives one way or another, our schools and colleges have still not fully embraced the technology in their curriculum as a result of which, we today have a country whose pool is largely unskilled to take the technology forward from what it is today now. In order to do something about the issue, The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has decided to kick off a ‘Foundation Skills in IoT’ course which will work towards charting the future path for the sustained growth of the domain by creating skilled IT professionals.

One of the primary goals that the ‘Foundation Skills in IoT’ courseware aims to achieve is to provide the Indian youth with the basic understanding of IoT which can not only help them in engineering education but also widen their employment horizon. The course would encompass introduction to IoT and its architecture, industry applications and use cases in various sectors like aerospace, agriculture, automotive, construction, energy, healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, retail and transportation. It also includes a mandatory project work at the end of the course so as to provide the students a practical exposure of what all they had been studying.

8) Meet Mitra – An AI Robot Designed By Bengaluru Startup and Built In China

In what could be considered as a perfect example of the greatness that can be achieved if both India and China come together and join hands more often, Bengaluru-based robotics start-up Invento Robotics has collaborated with manufacturing hubs in China to give birth to an intelligent robot called Mitra.

A 4.5 feet tall humanoid, Mitra has been designed by Invento to interact with humans through natural ways – voice and vision. It recognizes speech and then converts that into actionable information, which is then run through the startup’s algorithms to both respond to that query through past learning. This is then conveyed through speech output.

No, we’re not just talking about an idea in thin air. Mitra’s first prototype is actually currently functioning at Canara Bank’s headquarters in Bengaluru. Though at 30 kg, the robot is quite bulky, the robot is working quite efficiently as a receptionist at the bank and giving tours of the bank’s “experience zone” to customers.

9) This Is The Biggest Controversy That WWW Consortium Has Ever Had

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) just had its most controversial meeting ever. The non-profit that listens to debates and then sets standards to make all the web’s browsers and websites compatible just voted on a new proposed standard called Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) that is potentially going to change how the web works.

EME entails to standardise the way copyrighted videos are delivered within a web browser. This means, web users all around the world will no longer have to download the Adobe Flash add-ons or Microsoft Silverlight whenever they intend to watch a copyright protected video. Though the transitioning process began five years ago, but with the final vote in, this change is now official.

Of the 463 members that the consortium has, 108 voted yes, 57 objected, 20 abstained, and the rest didn’t participate in the vote. The members include stakeholders from academia to nonprofits to major tech biggies. While on the face of it, 185 votes out of 463 members might seem to be tragically low, but it in fact was the most highest voter turnout the consortium has ever seen.

10) India To Launch Its Own Bitcoin-Like Cryptocurrency Called ‘Lakshmi’

In an interesting turn of events, India’s central bank Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which till a few weeks ago showed its discomfort with Bitcoin while agreeing that it may make cryptocurrencies in the country as legal tender, is now reportedly considering launching its own cryptocurrency called Lakshmi, named after the Hindu goddess of wealth.

A group of experts at RBI are currently examining the possibility of a cryptocurrency which would become an alternative to the Indian rupee for digital transactions, and unlike bitcoin which is a non-fiat digital currency, the new one will be fiat-cryptocurrency. Fiat currency means a currency that is forced into circulation by a government.

Lakshmi could be a part of RBI’s effort of creating its own Blockchain, a distributed digital ledger and technology that supports cryptocurrencies.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [18-23 September]

As the week draws to an end, let's recap the top 10 things that happened in the tech sector during the week.

1) World’s First Blockchain Phone Which Have India Connection To Start Shipping in November

With Blockchain and Bitcoin fast becoming the latest fad all around the world, it was only logical that someone invented a blockchain smartphone sooner or later.

Enter BitVault, the world’s first crypto communicator and blockchain smartphone. The BitVault is a revolutionary new product that is built around security and privacy enabled through blockchain technology.

BitVault is owned and developed by Embedded Downloads, which is considered somewhat of a pro in secure hardware and software relating to the Internet of Things. The firm, which has development offices in Limerick, Ireland and New Delhi, India, has commissioned Gurgaon-headquartered VVDN Technologies as the development and manufacturing partner for the blockchain smartphone.

Showcased earlier this year at London Fintech week, Embedded Downloads will start shipping the phone in November this year.

2) India’s First Multi-Faceted AI and Robotics Centre To Come Up in Bengaluru

The city of Bengaluru will soon become home to India’s first multi-faceted artificial intelligence and robotics centre, according to a report in the Deccan Herald. To be established within Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) campus, the centre will be working on exploring the potential of data analytics, which is one of the various emerging technology’s popular nowadays, for various ecosystems.

3) Google To Take On PayTM; Launches ‘Tez’ Mobile Payment App in India

The week saw Google finally unveiling Tez, its free mobile wallet for India. Whether it is sending money home to your family or splitting money among friends for a dinner party, Tez will let you do it all in a jiffy. Using the app, users can pay for goods securely in physical stores and online. The app links users phone directly to their bank accounts. What makes Tez standout from its competitors is its Audio QR feature, which lets users use ultrasonic sounds to exchange money, bypassing any need for NFC.

4) Hewlett Packard , PwC To Jointly Create Smart City Center In Kolkata, India

It’s time we made our cities ready for the future. While we have made our daily lives technologically equipped, with a tech or an app ready to make our lives easier and more smoother, but in the process we have largely looked over the places that we stay in, our cities. Seeing the potential that smart city technologies holds in India, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and PwC have decided to join their hands on a new project that will work towards creating a center of excellence (CoE) in the city of Kolkata.

The CoE will work towards using the vast possibilities that Internet of Things (IoT) technologies has to offer and optimise things for the city administrators so that they can offer their best services to the citizens of their cities.

5) Rise of AI – 1,000 Indian Firms Including Startups Sign Up For IBM’s Watson Platform

American multinational technology company IBM has revealed that more than 1,000 Indian firms are currently making use of its popular Watson Internet of Things platform, according to a report in the Economic Times. IBM considers some of India’s most popular companies like Tata Steel, Reliance Group, Tech Mahindra, Maruti-Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, KPIT, Arrow Electronics, Kone, Acculi Labs, Avanijal Agri Automation and Schneider Electric India among its customers and partners.

IBM’s new Watson Internet of Things (IoT) is a cognitive system that learns from, and infuses intelligence into the physical world. It is a data analytics and cognitive artificial-intelligence (AI) platform that draws insights from enormous amount of data collected through sensors placed on machines and devices.


In addition to the Indian companies and startups, IBM is also working with several Indian states and government bodies on asset optimisation, water management and precision agriculture projects.

6) Intel Has Invested Over $1B in AI Startups

California-based Intel is considered a tech major for a reason. Intel’s innovation in cloud computing, data center, Internet of Things, and PC solutions have and are still powering the smart and connected digital world that we live in today. The best thing about the company is, that it doesn’t stop. After ruling the semiconductor chip market, the tech company is now vying to become the “the AI platform of choice.”

In order to realise its Artificial Intelligence (AI) mission, the American multinational corporation and technology company has already invested billions of dollars in developing machines that could be one day capable of carrying out tasks normally earmarked for humans.

Confirming the company’s enthusiasm about the emerging technology, Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich in an op-ed published earlier this week revealed that Intel Capital, which is Intel’s capital investment fund, has already put in over $1 billion in startups that are working towards advancing the course of AI. This includes Data Robot, Lumiata and Mighty AI.

7) Nasscom Launches IoT Skill Course for Techies in India

Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the most popular technologies that we have today. Though a lot of us are employing the technology in our daily lives one way or another, our schools and colleges have still not fully embraced the technology in their curriculum as a result of which, we today have a country whose pool is largely unskilled to take the technology forward from what it is today now. In order to do something about the issue, The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has decided to kick off a ‘Foundation Skills in IoT’ course which will work towards charting the future path for the sustained growth of the domain by creating skilled IT professionals.

One of the primary goals that the ‘Foundation Skills in IoT’ courseware aims to achieve is to provide the Indian youth with the basic understanding of IoT which can not only help them in engineering education but also widen their employment horizon. The course would encompass introduction to IoT and its architecture, industry applications and use cases in various sectors like aerospace, agriculture, automotive, construction, energy, healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, retail and transportation. It also includes a mandatory project work at the end of the course so as to provide the students a practical exposure of what all they had been studying.

8) Meet Mitra – An AI Robot Designed By Bengaluru Startup and Built In China

In what could be considered as a perfect example of the greatness that can be achieved if both India and China come together and join hands more often, Bengaluru-based robotics start-up Invento Robotics has collaborated with manufacturing hubs in China to give birth to an intelligent robot called Mitra.

A 4.5 feet tall humanoid, Mitra has been designed by Invento to interact with humans through natural ways – voice and vision. It recognizes speech and then converts that into actionable information, which is then run through the startup’s algorithms to both respond to that query through past learning. This is then conveyed through speech output.

No, we’re not just talking about an idea in thin air. Mitra’s first prototype is actually currently functioning at Canara Bank’s headquarters in Bengaluru. Though at 30 kg, the robot is quite bulky, the robot is working quite efficiently as a receptionist at the bank and giving tours of the bank’s “experience zone” to customers.

9) This Is The Biggest Controversy That WWW Consortium Has Ever Had

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) just had its most controversial meeting ever. The non-profit that listens to debates and then sets standards to make all the web’s browsers and websites compatible just voted on a new proposed standard called Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) that is potentially going to change how the web works.

EME entails to standardise the way copyrighted videos are delivered within a web browser. This means, web users all around the world will no longer have to download the Adobe Flash add-ons or Microsoft Silverlight whenever they intend to watch a copyright protected video. Though the transitioning process began five years ago, but with the final vote in, this change is now official.

Of the 463 members that the consortium has, 108 voted yes, 57 objected, 20 abstained, and the rest didn’t participate in the vote. The members include stakeholders from academia to nonprofits to major tech biggies. While on the face of it, 185 votes out of 463 members might seem to be tragically low, but it in fact was the most highest voter turnout the consortium has ever seen.

10) India To Launch Its Own Bitcoin-Like Cryptocurrency Called ‘Lakshmi’

In an interesting turn of events, India’s central bank Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which till a few weeks ago showed its discomfort with Bitcoin while agreeing that it may make cryptocurrencies in the country as legal tender, is now reportedly considering launching its own cryptocurrency called Lakshmi, named after the Hindu goddess of wealth.

A group of experts at RBI are currently examining the possibility of a cryptocurrency which would become an alternative to the Indian rupee for digital transactions, and unlike bitcoin which is a non-fiat digital currency, the new one will be fiat-cryptocurrency. Fiat currency means a currency that is forced into circulation by a government.

Lakshmi could be a part of RBI’s effort of creating its own Blockchain, a distributed digital ledger and technology that supports cryptocurrencies.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [14-19 August]

With another working week coming to a close, we at IndianWeb2 bring to you the top 10 news that made waves in the tech world. So, if you were too busy to keep a tab, spare a few minutes and get yourself updated with all that you missed during the week.

1) Indian-Orgin Startup Develops AI-based System To Instantly Identify Fake Products

As a business, reputation is everything. One small mistake is all it takes to tarnish an image a brand has laboured for years to build. Counterfeit goods are becoming a massive worldwide problem with nearly every high-valued physical product being affected by the issue. This is where an Artificial Intelligence system developed by Indian-origin researchers is coming to big businesses rescue and saving them big bucks.

Commercialised by New York University startup Entrupy, the new system that makes use of AI algorithms and a smartphone app is capable of instantly differentiating a fake product from a genuine one.

According to Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, Professor at New York University and Entrupy’s Chief Scientist, the AI system’s classification accuracy is more than 98 per cent, and it is capable of working with a mobile phone to verify the authenticity of everyday objects.

2) America’s Microsoft To Power China’s Baidu’s Self-Driving Car Project

American tech giant Microsoft has joined forces with China’s Chinese Internet search giant Baidu to power the latter’s open source self-driving project outside its home country. With this, Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure adds another bullet to the growing list of resources connected to one of Baidu’s most awaited projects.

The Chinese company, which occupies 60th rank on Forbes World’s Most Innovative Companies List 2017, first announced about its open source autonomous driving project, Apollo, in April this year. Named by the company after the historic lunar landing program, it is an open platform that provides open software stack, cloud infrastructure, and other services that are able to support major features and functions of an autonomous car.

With Microsoft coming onboard, companies who make use of Baidu’s Apollo platform for their self-driving vehicle projects will now be able to employ Microsoft’s Azure cloud services to securely scale their cars outside China.

3) Demand ​F​or ​AI, ​M​achine ​L​earning ​E​xperts To ​R​ise 60% ​B​y ​Next Year

Figuring out ways to remain relevant in today’s depressing job market in the Indian subcontinent? You might want to give artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning a try. According to recent findings by KellyOCG India, a talent management solutions provider, the demand for AI and machine learning specialists in India is going to see an overwhelming increase by next year.

The company has predicted that the country is going to see a whopping 60 per cent rise for specialists in the AI and machine learning field by 2018. The study also revealed that this steep rise in demand is fuelled by the country’s increasing adoption of automation.

4) A Lot Is Cooking At IoT Pot; Introduces Its First Innovation On Indiegogo, Klove Knob

One of NASSCOM Center of Excellence, IoT’s first incubated startups IoT Pot, an arm of IoK Labs Inc. has unveiled their first innovation on Indiegogo – Klove Knob; a product that promises to make cooking smart and safe. Klove Knob can be made to replace any conventional existing stove knob and needs no additional hardware to jump into action. Priced at $29 (early bird price), $39 (single unit price), and $25 per unit when bought as a pack of six, Klove Knob will change the way people cook forever.

Klove Knob is the world’s first voice assisted stove knob that helps in making an existing kitchen smart. The Klove Knob is pre-programmed with the times of things that are cooked most often. IoK Labs says that their Klove Knob is highly intuitive as compared to a micro wave oven, where the pre-set menu times have to be searched. With a Klove Knob, one needs to simply speak out what they’d like to cook and Klove Knob will set the time.

5) BSNL With MobiKwik Launches ‘BSNL Wallet’ – India’s Largest Wallet By Telecom Co.

Indian state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has unveiled its digital wallet (mobile payment App) in partnership with MobiKwik to enable one-tap bill payment for its over 100 million subscribers.

The wallet has been developed and issued by MobiKwik on behalf of BSNL. The subscribers will be able to use the digital wallet at over 1.5 million merchants across India. With the app, BSNL customers will have a new way to recharge their phones, pay their milkman, domestic help, groceries, book bus and train tickets.

6) Google Starts Counting Down To Android O With A New Eclipse-themed Tease

Google's much-awaited Android O, which has been in developer beta for a long time now, might finally be launched next week. Google recently launched an eclipse-themed teaser website counting down toward August 21st. The website also has some handy eclipse-tracking tools, including a cute animation of what to expect the eclipse to look like in your location on Monday.

Google’s next iteration, codenamed Android O has garnered a lot of interest since the day it's existence came known. Reportedly, it will be targeting exactly the areas where Google’s mobile OS needed improvement i.e. battery life, response time etc.

7) Bahrain Invites India’s Fintech Startups To Relocate Offices

Indian Fintech industry has caught Bahrain’s attention. During a recent visit to the Indian subcontinent, Simon Galpin, Managing Director, Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) revealed the kingdom’s plan to set up a Fintech Centre by next year.

The Centre, which is expected to go live by February/March 2018, will be providing accelerators and co-working spaces for fintech companies. In addition to this, it will also be providing networking opportunities to startups and financial institutions interested in the making it big in the fintech industry.

Galpin has been always appreciative of India’s fintech industry, especially of the mobile payments space. He believes that the companies can have a brighter future on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) market. According to him, since a majority of foreign workers in Bahrain are here without local bank accounts, mobile payments can be of big help in the country.

8) Google Is Testing a 'Search Lite' App for Countries With Slow Connections

Search-giant Google is currently testing out a light version of its Search app meant for areas with poor or slow internet connections. The app, which is only available in the Play Store in Indonesia, lets users search for things by typing or speaking. While the regular Google Search app starts users off with just a search bar, it quickly turns into a photo-rich experience with animations that appear as you scroll. However, Search Lite skips that step, and instead it brings all of that information to the front in the form of a grid of icons, similar to a home screen filled with apps.

The Lite app will use very little data and allow users with very little bandwidth to do the same sorts of things that someone in a country with fast, freely available internet can do.

9) Bihar To Come Up With New IT Policy

The current scenario is all about technology, digitization, the internet etc. And in such scenario, how can state like Bihar can lack behind. Bihar is reportedly planning to come up with a new IT policy. This new policy will focus on promoting technology-oriented companies to set up a base and invest in the state’s technology and electronics manufacturing sector.

According to Rahul Singh, Bihar’s IT secretary, the policy will have more benefits than the current sops offered to companies and will make the investment environment more conducive.

Work on the new policy has been going on for the past couple of months and the draft should be ready by the end of this month and that the policy is expected to be finalised by September.

10) YouTube Adds ‘Breaking News’ Section To Homepage And Mobile Apps

In order to give its users a real-time update of all that's happening in the world, YouTube this week launched a “Breaking News” carousel to its mobile apps and homepage. The new section appears as a scrollable carousel in the mobile app between suggested videos and as a recommended channel on the web homepage.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [14-19 August]

With another working week coming to a close, we at IndianWeb2 bring to you the top 10 news that made waves in the tech world. So, if you were too busy to keep a tab, spare a few minutes and get yourself updated with all that you missed during the week.

1) Indian-Orgin Startup Develops AI-based System To Instantly Identify Fake Products

As a business, reputation is everything. One small mistake is all it takes to tarnish an image a brand has laboured for years to build. Counterfeit goods are becoming a massive worldwide problem with nearly every high-valued physical product being affected by the issue. This is where an Artificial Intelligence system developed by Indian-origin researchers is coming to big businesses rescue and saving them big bucks.

Commercialised by New York University startup Entrupy, the new system that makes use of AI algorithms and a smartphone app is capable of instantly differentiating a fake product from a genuine one.

According to Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, Professor at New York University and Entrupy’s Chief Scientist, the AI system’s classification accuracy is more than 98 per cent, and it is capable of working with a mobile phone to verify the authenticity of everyday objects.

2) America’s Microsoft To Power China’s Baidu’s Self-Driving Car Project

American tech giant Microsoft has joined forces with China’s Chinese Internet search giant Baidu to power the latter’s open source self-driving project outside its home country. With this, Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure adds another bullet to the growing list of resources connected to one of Baidu’s most awaited projects.

The Chinese company, which occupies 60th rank on Forbes World’s Most Innovative Companies List 2017, first announced about its open source autonomous driving project, Apollo, in April this year. Named by the company after the historic lunar landing program, it is an open platform that provides open software stack, cloud infrastructure, and other services that are able to support major features and functions of an autonomous car.

With Microsoft coming onboard, companies who make use of Baidu’s Apollo platform for their self-driving vehicle projects will now be able to employ Microsoft’s Azure cloud services to securely scale their cars outside China.

3) Demand ​F​or ​AI, ​M​achine ​L​earning ​E​xperts To ​R​ise 60% ​B​y ​Next Year

Figuring out ways to remain relevant in today’s depressing job market in the Indian subcontinent? You might want to give artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning a try. According to recent findings by KellyOCG India, a talent management solutions provider, the demand for AI and machine learning specialists in India is going to see an overwhelming increase by next year.

The company has predicted that the country is going to see a whopping 60 per cent rise for specialists in the AI and machine learning field by 2018. The study also revealed that this steep rise in demand is fuelled by the country’s increasing adoption of automation.

4) A Lot Is Cooking At IoT Pot; Introduces Its First Innovation On Indiegogo, Klove Knob

One of NASSCOM Center of Excellence, IoT’s first incubated startups IoT Pot, an arm of IoK Labs Inc. has unveiled their first innovation on Indiegogo – Klove Knob; a product that promises to make cooking smart and safe. Klove Knob can be made to replace any conventional existing stove knob and needs no additional hardware to jump into action. Priced at $29 (early bird price), $39 (single unit price), and $25 per unit when bought as a pack of six, Klove Knob will change the way people cook forever.

Klove Knob is the world’s first voice assisted stove knob that helps in making an existing kitchen smart. The Klove Knob is pre-programmed with the times of things that are cooked most often. IoK Labs says that their Klove Knob is highly intuitive as compared to a micro wave oven, where the pre-set menu times have to be searched. With a Klove Knob, one needs to simply speak out what they’d like to cook and Klove Knob will set the time.

5) BSNL With MobiKwik Launches ‘BSNL Wallet’ – India’s Largest Wallet By Telecom Co.

Indian state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has unveiled its digital wallet (mobile payment App) in partnership with MobiKwik to enable one-tap bill payment for its over 100 million subscribers.

The wallet has been developed and issued by MobiKwik on behalf of BSNL. The subscribers will be able to use the digital wallet at over 1.5 million merchants across India. With the app, BSNL customers will have a new way to recharge their phones, pay their milkman, domestic help, groceries, book bus and train tickets.

6) Google Starts Counting Down To Android O With A New Eclipse-themed Tease

Google's much-awaited Android O, which has been in developer beta for a long time now, might finally be launched next week. Google recently launched an eclipse-themed teaser website counting down toward August 21st. The website also has some handy eclipse-tracking tools, including a cute animation of what to expect the eclipse to look like in your location on Monday.

Google’s next iteration, codenamed Android O has garnered a lot of interest since the day it's existence came known. Reportedly, it will be targeting exactly the areas where Google’s mobile OS needed improvement i.e. battery life, response time etc.

7) Bahrain Invites India’s Fintech Startups To Relocate Offices

Indian Fintech industry has caught Bahrain’s attention. During a recent visit to the Indian subcontinent, Simon Galpin, Managing Director, Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) revealed the kingdom’s plan to set up a Fintech Centre by next year.

The Centre, which is expected to go live by February/March 2018, will be providing accelerators and co-working spaces for fintech companies. In addition to this, it will also be providing networking opportunities to startups and financial institutions interested in the making it big in the fintech industry.

Galpin has been always appreciative of India’s fintech industry, especially of the mobile payments space. He believes that the companies can have a brighter future on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) market. According to him, since a majority of foreign workers in Bahrain are here without local bank accounts, mobile payments can be of big help in the country.

8) Google Is Testing a 'Search Lite' App for Countries With Slow Connections

Search-giant Google is currently testing out a light version of its Search app meant for areas with poor or slow internet connections. The app, which is only available in the Play Store in Indonesia, lets users search for things by typing or speaking. While the regular Google Search app starts users off with just a search bar, it quickly turns into a photo-rich experience with animations that appear as you scroll. However, Search Lite skips that step, and instead it brings all of that information to the front in the form of a grid of icons, similar to a home screen filled with apps.

The Lite app will use very little data and allow users with very little bandwidth to do the same sorts of things that someone in a country with fast, freely available internet can do.

9) Bihar To Come Up With New IT Policy

The current scenario is all about technology, digitization, the internet etc. And in such scenario, how can state like Bihar can lack behind. Bihar is reportedly planning to come up with a new IT policy. This new policy will focus on promoting technology-oriented companies to set up a base and invest in the state’s technology and electronics manufacturing sector.

According to Rahul Singh, Bihar’s IT secretary, the policy will have more benefits than the current sops offered to companies and will make the investment environment more conducive.

Work on the new policy has been going on for the past couple of months and the draft should be ready by the end of this month and that the policy is expected to be finalised by September.

10) YouTube Adds ‘Breaking News’ Section To Homepage And Mobile Apps

In order to give its users a real-time update of all that's happening in the world, YouTube this week launched a “Breaking News” carousel to its mobile apps and homepage. The new section appears as a scrollable carousel in the mobile app between suggested videos and as a recommended channel on the web homepage.