BlackPepper Technologies Acquires SiMASK Technologies

BlackPepper Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Acquires Bangalore-based SiMASK Technologies, an Analog Design Company. The announcement comes as an exciting factor because SiMASK Technologies is a leading player in the Analog Design arena. The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) association says the global semiconductor market is mounting to be a US$347 billion by 2017. Interesting point is that Analog Design segment constitutes a major percentage of this market.

Jei Narayanan, Chief Operating Officer, BlackPepper is happy with this acquisition as over the years BlackPepper has created a core expertise in Design, Verification, Synthesis/ STA, DFT, PD, Package Design, AMS, IP Vendoring and Post Silicon Validation (PSV). With the addition of SiMASK team into theirs will add a humongous strength in their offerings in the Analog & Mixed Signal space especially in their key stronghold area of complete turnkey implementations.

BlackPepper is a known name in VLSI design service providers segment with a significant presence in the semiconductor industry as reported by Manivannan M, Founder & CEO of SiMASK. The company has its key expertise in the Analog and RF (Radio Frequency) domains are all set to complement and extend BlackPepper's reach in turnkey silicon business. He further added that the key purpose together is to gain a high amount of customer satisfaction and further depth in innovative techniques to align values and purpose thus achieving higher penetration in the market in this segment. With this handshake, the expertise level of SiMASK will not only broaden but there will also be a substantial expansion in their client base thus helping in the enhancement of their research and development capacity. Hopefully, the two will sustain their exciting journey for a long run in order to achieve their primary goals together.

BlackPepper Technologies is considered to be a new generation, Silicon to System Design Company that is well focused on providing differentiated product engineering capabilities across the horizon of worldwide semiconductor companies. It's unique EYWA technology platform is known for delivering complete turnkey solutions from Architecture to implementation to high volume manufacturing with near to accurate prediction of cost, TAT and reliability.

SiMASK Technologies has its core strengths in Analog Design, Layout and automation. It has proven record in successful implementations that include blocks like PLL, ADC, USB, DAC, and SERDES on technology nodes down to 14 FinFET. Some of the prominent customers are Mediatek, Avago, IBM, and E-Silicon.

Landmine Defusing Challenge at ICRA Sweden selects Sastra Robotics for Finals

In Landmine Defusing Challenge, "Team Autobots" got selected into the finals of HRATC conducted by ICRA in Sweden. Sastra Robotics & QBotics Labs, two separate robotic startups from Kerala who joined hands to build the Team Autobots. Indian team has thus landed into the finals of the Humanitarian Robotics and Automation Technology Challenge (HRATC). The team that is participating on behalf of the Indian startup is named Autobots. ICRA is the reputed robotics conference. HRATC is a competition conducted by ICRA in association with SIGHT (Special Interest Group for Humanitraian Technology) under IEEE.

The International Conference of Robotics and Automation (ICRA) aims to bring together the top scientists and researchers engaged in cutting edge robotic technologies. ICRA 2016 is organized to take place in Stockholm, Sweden from May 16^th to 21^st. As reported by the UN Mine Action Service, landmines are responsible for killing at least 15,000 to 20,000 people every year having a majority of children in this count. Minesweeping is quite dangerous in terms of being time intensive and abrupt. A large number of landmines that have been left behind by soldiers continue to increase terror and destruction of human lives long after the wars have been called off or finished.

Landmine casualties, in fact, bring an additional and substantial burden on war-stricken countries. For instance, if a mother gets killed or mutilated by a landmine makes her entire family at risk of disease and malnutrition. This, in fact, impacts on generations to come, in such cases. Similarly, a child when gets mutilated by a landmine creates a burden on its family, society, and health services of the country thereby impounding impact on the nation as a whole.

The Humanitarian Robotics and Automation Technology Challenge (HRATC) aims to search and diffuse hidden unexploded landmines with the use of robotics and without human interventions so as to increase efficiency and decrease risks. Autobots, the team created by Sastra Robotics & QBotics Labs, from Kerala, to accept this challenge has been rated among the top 4 teams participating globally. The final 4 teams that made to the finals of the challenge will now be competing further for the top position. Autobots currently is with the leading score among the 4 finalists. The team consists of robotics experts from QBotics Labs and Sastra Robotics. QBotics Labs specializes in robotics research and Sastra Robotics specializes in robotic arms for testing of high-end devices. The members of Autobots team include Lentin Joseph (CEO/ Founder of QBotics Labs) who is also leading the team, Achu Wilson (CTO/ Co-Founder of Sastra Robotics), and Chandykunju Alex (Robotics Engineer, Sastra Robotics).

The Solution designed by Autobots team is to detect the presence of landmines with accurate position (latitude, longitude) using all-terrain robot, Husky. Husky is not developed by the Team Autobots or any of the contestants. It is developed and manufactured by some company under the guidance of SIGHT. The first half of Husky is the hardware, and that is taken up by SIGHT. The second half of Husky is the software application that makes it do landmine detection and being autonomous at doing it; this is done by the contesting teams. Team Autobots and the other teams made the software half of Husky, not the hardware half. Accuracy and efficiency are the keys that define Husky's work style.

This is definitely a proud moment for Indian Robotics to get such recognition at the  global level. The final round is on May 17^th.

Update as of June 1st: Team Autobots has won 1st prize in HRATC at ICRA-2016.

FinSmart Personal Wealth Management e-learning Brought by Finsafe

Finsafe is on a mission of creating intelligent investors trained throught e-learning. The company has recently launcheed an e-learning modile FinSmart eqipping all keen in learning about personal wealth management. FinSmart is a fully scalable learning app that you can download in your smartphone and keep learning at your desired time and pace. It is a useful tool to facilitate all aspirants to learn to stay abreast and equally useful for professionals to brush up their tanks of knowledge.

An e-learning module FinSmart launched by Finsage India Private Limited delivers exhaustive knowledge about personal wealth management. The duration of this module is pretty cool. It is just 2 hour long module launched with an intent to educate people on how to make the most of their disposable income.

The module covers fundamentals of investment and deep insights on relevant subjects like inflation, risk, and compounding. There are many investment tools in the market like mututal funds, insurance, pension, and debt instruments but before you make a call on investing on any of these tools, you need to understand the factors affecting them. That is where this tool becomes handy that makes you understand well on these tools describing them in depth. You will also learn how to manage your personal and comprehensive financial planner. A model portfolio is generated for you during the module. You are also facilitated for making online investments.

FinSmart has won the CNBC Grand Jury Award in acclamation for the work done towards Financial Inclusion & Education in 2015. FinSmart was launched by Mrin Agarwal who is also the co-founder of Womantra. Womantra is a training program targeted in enhancement of financial awareness among women. So far, Womantra has certified over 5000 women among 40 organizations across India during last 2.5 years. The purpose behind these training sessions conducted by Womantra is that most young professionals in India are not equipped well with the knowledge required to achieve their financial aspirations. That emerged as a critical need to raise financial awareness and inclusion.

Medical Illustrations Online at Unbeatable Price and Quality

Now you can buy the best quality Medical Illustrations online. These high quality medical illustrations come at an unbeatable price. All this now can be achieved here with no hassles involved. The Medical Illustration Company recently launched highly creative, cost effective, and high quality medical illustrations online. Among the relevant people in medical industry, education, and profession (or budding professionals), every one know the importance of a medical illustration in their business, trade, profession, or industry. These medical illustrations fulfill their requirement of highly precise graphic illustrations of various subjects that are connected to medicine and biology that they need to use in procedure pamphlets, textbooks, journals, medical books, educational books, and so on.

The Medical Illustration Company has an experience of creating over 100 illustrations on a per day basis. Soon after its launch it has become quite popular among the relevant people that it has catered to the need of more than 1100 doctors as well as medical researchers with their demand of out-of-box illustrations. The company assures complete satisfaction to each of its clients to its fullest extent without any compromise with the quality, delivery, and cost. With such commitment available online, one can now find premium quality medical drawings and illustrations quite easily. The company also offers a fully dedicated unlimited revisions support that goes in compliance with the experienced and highly competent medical illustrators.

User testimonials on the site are quite encouraging thereby supporting the mission of the company. One of the testimonial praises company's efforts working on complex image that he required with the changes made on it, and he got exactly what he wanted. The policy of the company says - “Pay for Exact What You Want”. Best of the tools available in technology like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop are used to provide high quality and complete satisfaction. The expertise in drawing medical concepts without any deviation from technical guidelines are well kept in mind while delivering to a customer's needs of Medical Illustrations.

Invezta Robo Advisory Platform with First Zero Commission Robo Advisor

Invezta is a unique Robo Advisory Platform with India’s first Zero-Commission Robo-Advisor. The concept is to pay only if it works model. The solution comes from Valuefy Solutions. The financial firm specializes in MF (Mutual Fund) research and analysis on a strongly built technology platform. With the launch of its Robo Advisory Platform, the company enables retail investors to invest intelligently in various mutual fund schemes. This is a first of its kind robo advisory platform in India with a unique kind of commission model. All the advisory services are based on this model.

The investor interested in retail investments will go for the direct plans of different mutual fund schemes having zero commissions. This way the investor is offered lowest possible expense ratio if compared with the regular plans available in the market, online or offline, elsewhere. The company commits to charge zero commission or kickbacks from the investor’s fund that ensuring unaltered and unbiased investment advice to the customer.

The main hassle for any investor comprises of a number of hidden fee and charges that you are never educated upfront. It comes to the knowledge of an investor only after the investment is done and certain fee and commission are charged on each investment. That makes it a unique model of advice to the customer with no biasing involved.  Invezta is formed on these grounds to thrash out such pains to the investor with a goal of investor centric portfolio management built on a world class technologically driven platform with minimal or no cost is thrown on the investor.

The investor gets a best matching advice that is based on investor’s portfolio, product suitability, and investor’s choices to scale out the optimum risk assessment model in a customized manner. Invezta is built on a state of the art quality and technological model advisory platform for all variety of retail investors. The customized generated analytics for each individual provides unique insights to each individual in the manner same as used by the top class fund management firms across the globe. Thus, investors are empowered for best possible decision making and their internal assessment of the portfolio in a real-time environment.

Blueair brings Free Air Quality Test for Indian Firms

Blueair offers Free Air Quality Test to Fight Bad Air in Offices. The effort is to enhance business productivity. Awareness about the bad office air is important for any business to fight against it and bring it to a level where the productivity can be enhanced. When I attended the launch of Blueair Sense, Aware and Friend product of range in February 2016, I realized the beginning of a new era in the identification of bad Air Quality in an Indian office and its scientific linkages with the overall   productivity in the office. The ideas expressed by Bengt Rittri, Founder and Global CEO of Blueair were phenomenal. He had a clear vision and marvelous mission of achieving his targets. The same vision and mission bring this unique concept of free air quality test offer to Indian firms.

A new research conducted by this Swedish company shows how the bad air in offices can mar the productivity factor of individuals thus impacting the overall productivity of an organization. The purpose of this offer by the world-leading air purifier company to all the companies across India to test the air at their workplaces is to showcase how the productivity related issues can be overcome caused by the substandard air quality levels. It is a good effort by Blueair to improve the individual and business health, wellbeing and productivity with the help of this unique concept. On top of it, the offer is free for businesses to grab and take advantage of it.

With the actual measurement of sub-standard air quality at any workplace, the power of Blueair Pro air purifier is also being demonstrated on how intelligently it acts to clean the air at the workplace by fighting against the air contaminants up to an exorbitant level of 99.97% in just 20 minutes to restore it back to a healthy state. That is really phenomenal. Not only this, the businesses that opt for this unique offer of free air quality check from Blueair get a massive discount of 25% during the month of April to buy Pro air purifiers for their workplace.Blueair brings Free Air Quality Test for Indian Firms.

AxisForexOnline by Axis Bank for Complete Retail Forex Solution

Axis Bank has launched AxisForexOnline.com for providing complete end to end retail forex solution to its customers. This is reportedly India’s first comprehensive solution in this regard. The solution entails a suite of forex products that is simple to use and easy to navigate. With a click of a button the user now manage all forex related activities like remittances, foreign currency cash, and forex card delivery at his or her doorstep with no hassles involved in the process.

The service newly launched by Axis Bank can be availed by all resident Indian individuals. On the AxisForexOnline portal, all the services are available round the clock 24 x 7 like rate booking and transaction origination without any limitation of banking hours. This is the first portal in the country that provides its customers a wide option of more than 100 currencies and over 150 countries. Convenience, Ease of use, and Speed are taken as utmost priority for the user. It offers an outward remittance limit of USD 2,50,000 per financial year that is probably quite high in retail forex.

Axis Bank is already a market leader in travel currency cards. With the launch of AxisForexOnline, the bank has widened its horizon of services and commitment to its customers at a larger scale. Along with online portal, there is also a facility of doorstep delivery of forex cards and foreign remittance cash. The doorstep delivery is on the same day to all resident Indian individuals. That speaks volume of the quality of service. The aim of this innovative offering from Axis Bank is to provide their customers the ease and comfort in the Retail Forex Solution zone. Now things can happen with the click of a button in a simple yet effective way. The online process, in any case, is bound to save money and logistic expenses. 

Binary Caves Fastest Growing Web Company in India

Binary Caves is India’s fastest growing web company. With the emerging technologies and digital era the functioning philosophy of web companies has changed tremendously. India is the most impacted by the exponential growth in digital spectrum among all developing countries across the globe. Based on a well-researched estimation, there would be more than five billion people in the online community by 2020. This figures out to be two-thirds of the overall population of earth. India would be sharing the biggest chunk of this figure of five billion people. But the catch is that more than a billion people in India are still not connected to the internet. That is where the role of startups like Binary Caves comes into the picture. These startups need to transform India to Digital India with the help of innovation, disruptive technologies and precise deliverables on their platter.

Although there is a huge growth seen in the emergence of startups, digital marketing, and web companies in last decade. Most of these companies have failed or are on the verge of failure because of adopting redundant methodologies, unprofessional approach in design and development, and unclear vision. Almost 85% are grabbed by the black-hole of failure because of the reasons mentioned above. With newer technologies, newer approach and methodologies are required. Adopting obsolete technologies, approach or methodologies would lead such companies to failure.

Binary Caves has become fastest growing web company because of not getting trapped in such obsolete processes. The company emphasizes on delivering the best web design with clear visibility of the purpose. Any website these days has to be responsive as most of users prefer to browse on-the-go on their smartphones. The navigation has to be precise and seamless; thanks to the social media and digital era that has raised the expectations of end user to tremendous heights. There has to be clarity and the site has to be effective.

That is where Binary Caves has an edge over others in delivering web apps, graphic designing, and social media solutions to their customers. The content strategy ensures a mix of 4 components – Substance, Workflow, Structure, and Governance. The responsive design ensures automatic alignment with the screen size thus presenting right content in right shape on any device. These are the strengths based on which Binary Caves is emerging as India’s fastest growing web company.

Boons and Banes of Internet

Boons:


1. Communication: a. Video Conferencing: Corporates are having their AGMs and general body meetings through video conferencing now a days. This has removed the geographical barriers and helped to cut costs and time in travel. b. Internet Telephony: This has tremendously helped to talk to your beloved ones living anywhere in the world with the help of a headphone (with mike). Now a computer can have voice chat with another computer. c. IP Phones: You install IP Phones on your internet backbone in offices in various countries and then talk at a cut throat price by dialing static IP number. No need of telephones and landlines for the purpose. d. Chat: Chat with your friends residing anywhere with the help of a PC, a messenger and internet. No cost involved. e. Email: Be it corporate of an individual, everyone lives with emails. No survival without this area of communication. f. Webcasts: Companies launch their products or conduct seminars from a single point and people all over the world can attend to it. WOW! g. Webcams: Video Cameras or webcams are being used for chat, telecast, demonstration of products or locations.


2. Publishing: a. Ebooks: who is not familiar with ebooks now a days. Websites are selling books in two versions – hard copy (costlier) and ebook (cheaper version). And beauty is that in case you buy ebook version, pay the money and instantly download the book, read and enjoy. Zero delivery period. b. Enewspapers: All newspapers – be it national or international are available on internet in real-time. as the things happen, they get published in the on-line version. c. Online albums: Your all relatives, friends can share photo albums on internet at a common place. 


3. Business: a. Banking – money transfers, payment gateways, online status of your accounts and what not. All is available at the click of a button. b. Bill alerts: You subscribe to the service and you get alerts as and when they get generated. You view your bill online and pay online. No postage, no delivery delays, no missing bills. c. Shopping: Buy anything over the internet through secure gateways, and plastic card. 


4. Career: Jobs, resume posting, resume sorting: Finding a right candidate and finding a right employer has become much easier and scope has become much-much wider. 


5. Search: You seek any information, go to a global search engine and you get that in no time. Only time you need to spend is in selecting and sorting the huge information. 


6. Storage: You get MBs and GBs of space on net servers at no cost with higher reliability in the shape of Briefcase, mails storage servers. 


Banes: 1. Pornography 2. Frauds 3. Hacking 4.  Virus, spam, fisching, worms, bugs

Review On Axis Bank (formerly UTI Bank): Harnessing Technology For Service

Few days back got my renewal notice for ULIP payment which gets due in Jan every year. Since I do most of my payments (BSES Rajdhani, Airtel, LIC, Citibank Credit Card, MTNL, Touchtel) through internet on my bank website, wondered if I could pay my ULIP due also through internet. Checked on various gateways – Citibank, ICICI, Billjunction.com (it ultimately uses Citibank Gateway only) and UTI site also to find if I could pay online through my debit or credit card. Alas, could not find a single place where ULIP payment provision was there. 


All of a sudden the slogan on the envelope of UTI came into sight in which I received my renewal notice. Boldly it was printed there – “Harnessing Technology for Service”. We Indian (especially government) organization shout loudly and deliver little. On one hand we have any foreign bank with extra ordinary and outstanding unbeatable technology services (no doubt few Indian banks also in the fray but how much competitive they are and how much successful, I don’t want to comment on it.). 


I really don’t understand why really we don’t want to adopt and accept new well established and well proven technologies which are successful all over the world. May be we are happy with little progress and more manual work. Otherwise in today’s scenario there are turn key projects which get your systems established within no time, provided you are clear what you want. Is UTI backed by “UTI Technology Services Limited” really “HARNESSING TECHNOLOGY FOR SERVICE”. Which technologies? What kind of harnessing? For Service to whom? God knows!