Avnet’s X-fest Breaks Records in Bangalore

Records, All, Science & Technology

More than 300 engineers scramble to attend global technical seminar

Bangalore, India

Avnet’s X-fest 2012 ( http://www.xfest.avnetasia.com/ ) global seminar series, which took place in Bangalore on July 17, set a new country attendance record by attracting more than 300 engineers, more than doubling the number of attendees who attended the same event last time and significantly exceeding the expected 200 attendees. The X-fest series of one-day training events for FPGA, ARM MCUs, DSP and embedded system developers, was organized by Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia ( http://www.em.avnetasia.com/ ), a business region of Avnet, Inc ( http://avnet.com ) (NYSE: AVT ( http://ir.avnet.com/ )).

X-fest has attracted significant interest in sessions held in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou. Beijing X-fest also set a new breaking record with almost 1,000 people attending the event, while the Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou sessions also drew higher-than-expected numbers of Avnet customers. Planning is already underway for upcoming events in Singapore, Bangkok, Xi’an, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shenyang, where there are signs of equally healthy interest. The seminar series will continue until the end of August. Registration is open at Avnet’s online portal: http://www.xfest.avnetasia.com .

“The success and overwhelmingly positive responses for X-fest Bangalore demonstrate that engineers find the event truly helpful to their work. They learned a lot about how to design their products with new technology,” said Terence Tan, regional president, Avnet Electronics Marketing, South Asia and Korea.

“The record attendance at X-fest in India is a testimony to our ability to understand what our partners truly need and demonstrates our commitment to delivering added values,” said Tan.

His views were echoed by Ramani Sundaresan, managing director of Avnet Electronics Marketing India.

“Avnet is committed to bringing new technology to customers and at this year’s X-fest, we feature revolutionary technology – 28nm, Zynq-700 EPP and Xilinx 7-series as well as new applications. Through this event, we are also able to deliver system level solutions that facilitate time-to-market benefits for our customers. Our team of experienced engineers and our partners have come together to directly interact with their fellow engineers, showing them the best ways to integrate today’s leading technology into their designs,” said Sundaresan.

The X-fest 2012 program features twelve technical courses based on Xilinx’s new Artix(TM)-7, Kintex(TM)-7 and Virtex(TM)-7 FPGAs, as well as the new Zynq(TM)-7000 Extensible Processing Platform (EPP) family. Attendees have the ability to customize their day by selecting four courses from any of the three unique training tracks:

— The FPGA Fundamentals track features four courses aimed at common

design issues facing both new and advanced FPGA designers. Topics

around Xilinx 28nm 7 series FPGAs include power design,

optimizing memory interfaces, clocking and PCIe interface

implementations.

— The Applications track delves deeper into design methodologies

and techniques required in designing with the Zynq(TM)-7000 EPP

and 7 series FPGAs. Application-oriented topics include wireless

communications, motor control, video and real-world analog

processing.

— The Zynq(TM)-7000 EPP track provides four courses dedicated to

the ARM dual core Cortex(TM)-A9 MPCore(TM) based device. Topics

include an introductory overview of the Zynq-7000 EPP

architecture, Zynq-7000 EPP development tools overview and

software acceleration techniques using the Zynq-7000 EPP’s

programmable logic.

Connect with X-fest

Watch X-fest’s videos at www.em.avnetasia.com or Avnet OnDemand (http://avnetondemand.com/avnet-in-asia/channel/74/ )

Like X-fest on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/#!/xfest2012 )

Follow X-fest on Twitter ( http://twitter.com/AvnetXfest )

About Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia ( http://www.em.avnetasia.com/ )

source: http://www.equities.com / Home> News> Technology /Aug. 02, 2012 / PRNewswire-Asia/

Vally Vagga bags Konkani Kutam Bahrain Award -2012

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Nri's / Pio's

Mysore:

Well-known Konkani writer, poet and entrepreneur Valerian D’Souza, popularly known as Vally Vagga, who is a resident of Mysore, will be conferred with the Konkani Kutam Bahrain award-2012 at a function to be held on July 28 at 6.30 pm at St. Sebastian Platinum Jubilee Hall in Mangalore.

The award consists of a cash prize of Rs. 50,000, a citation and a memento.

Vally Vagga had an interest in Konkani literature right from his young age. He began writing in Konkani from 1964. For the past 48 years, he has published over 125 short stories, 120 poems and more than 50 articles on various subjects. His works include Jinni Konnachem? (1966), Sot ani Jivit (1967), Dhull (1990), Jivitachim Mettam (2003) and Dongra Voili Vaatt (2007).

His stories have been translated to Hindi and Telugu. He writes in Kannada as well and has translated many of his original Konkani stories into Kann-ada. Vally Vagga also started Lourdes Prakashan, which has published many Konkani books.

Well-versed in poetry, Vally Vagga has participated in various poetry sessions during Mysore Dasara Festival, organised by Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Akademi, Dept. of Kannada and Culture, All India Konkani Sahitya Parishad, Kavita Trust and Doordarshan. He has presented papers during various literary events and seminars. Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy had bestowed on him its Honorary Award in 2009.

Vally Vagga is the proprietor of Lourdes Engineers, an ISO 9001-2000 Quality Management System Company at Hootagalli Industrial Area in Mysore.

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / General News / July 27th, 2012

Karnataka government nominates Beary Sahitya Academy members

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Mangalore:

The state government has nominated 10-members to the city-based Karnataka Beary Sahitya Academy.  The list of members has given representation to hitherto unrepresented districts and taluks in the state where the language is spoken, Rahim Uchil, president of the Academy said, adding that the government has nominated people with a deep-rooted commitment and passion to develop Beary language, arts and culture.

The academy will shortly convene the meeting of all newly nominated members and chart out the future course of action based on mutual exchange of ideas and strive to implement them successfully, Rahim said. The nominated members are Ahmad Bava and Abdul Ameer Ansari (Mysore), AK Jamaluddin (Mangalore), Ummar J (Sullia), Kasim (Belthangady), Fazal Assaigoli (Assaigoli, DK), Muhammad Kalladka (Bantwal), Khalid KA (Chikmagalur), Yakub Khader Gulvady (Kundapur) and TK Muhmmad Sharief  (Domluru, Bangalore).

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Mangalore / by Jaideep Shenoy, TNN / June 14th, 2012

Writer Sudarshan Desai dead

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Dharwad:

Detective novelist Sudarshan Desai(67) breathed his last at a private hospital in Dharwad on Tuesday, after a brief illness. He is survived by wife and three daughters.

Desai was a primary schoolteacher.

Attracted by the Hindi detective literature, he started writing detective novels in Kannada.

A majority of his detective serials were published by leading magazine houses. He has authored 85 detective novels and 35 on social themes.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Hubli / TNN / August 01st, 2012

Sequoia Capital invests $4.6M in online clinic management platform Practo

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Bangalore-based Practo Technologies Pvt Ltd., a web-based clinic management software developer, has raised Rs 25 crore (around $4.6 million) from Sequoia Capital in a Series A round of funding. Practo’s flagship product is Practo Ray, a web-based software tool which provides automated appointment scheduling and storage of healthcare records including X-rays, files, prescriptions and billing. Practo’s platform currently manages 10,000 appointments per day, with 8,000 doctors at 5,000 dental, wellness and other healthcare centres across India.

The money raised will be used to launch its various products globally and expand Practo’s 80-member team to around 350 over the next two years.

Shailendra Singh, managing director of Sequoia Capital India, said in a statement, “In a short span of time, Practo Ray has become the preferred platform for thousands of doctors to book appointments, issue prescriptions and store patient records, and millions of patients can now access their appointments and health records online or through their mobile devices.

“We believe Practo has the potential to become the dominant Cloud-based healthcare platform in India and we are excited about the new services that Practo is planning to launch on top of the robust platform it has already built,” he added.

Practo has recently launched Practo.com that helps patients find doctors and connect with them through their dedicated online interface. It provides customised search options and shares details on doctors and clinics. In addition, the company has also launched an online API for partners to launch other online services that doctors and clinics may use. Several pharma companies and healthcare vendors are currently building applications on the Practo API.

Practo’s founder Shashank ND said in a statement, “The idea to create Practo Ray – our online software for clinic management, came out of our understanding of the doctor’s pain in managing patient records, scheduling appointments, etc. This prompted us to initiate an easy-to-use, technology-driven service that allows efficient patient care.”

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)

source: http://www.techcircle.vccircle.com / Home> Internet / by Nandita Das / July 30th, 2012

Vijay Mallya-led United Spirits Ltd shifts focus to premium brands

Business & Economy

The Vijay Mallya-led United Spirits Ltd (USL), the largest spirits company in the world in terms of numbers, has initiated a total overhaul of its business structure, with a strategic shift in focus from mass selling brands to premium brands.

The focus has shifted to premium brands that would bring in a larger profit margin per case, almost 3.3 times more than the regular segment. The new approach to the business appears to be a leaf taken from the manufacturer of Royal Stag and Blender’s Pride whisky, French spirit behemoth Pernod Ricard, USL’s nearest rival.

For USL, the alarm bell rang in FY11 when Pernod Ricard, whose sales were around onefifth of USL’s, made a profit of about Rs 500 crore when the United Spirits Ltd’s profit figure hovered around Rs 400 crore.

Pernod Ricard India has led the way for the industry by generating handsome profits, from small volumes. The primary focus of Pernod’s business strategy is to focus on premium brands such as Royal Stag and Blender’s pride whiskies. The French company’s market share is less than one-fifth of USL, which controls 55% of the 250-million cases Indian spirit market.

An industry source said the French company generates profit of nearly Rs 350 per case while the USL’s average profit per case is around Rs 200 per case.

“USL’s premium brands share of the company’s overall contribution pie is at 55% today and expected to be up by another 5% by the end of this year. This is a significant increase from just 9% in 2005 and is an outcome of sustained premiumisation focus.

Specifically, we have brands cross-lined to Pernod’s brands — pricing of Signature is at par with Blender’s Pride nationally while McDowell’s No.1 Platinum is cross-lined with Royal Stag,” a senior USL official said.

It is the competitor’s success in generating larger profits from smaller volumes that had triggered off a new thought process within the top management of the USL. The focus has shifted to striking a fine balance between volume and margin.

The strategy, christened “premiumisastion”, has been changing the face of the group from one identified with its mass selling brands such as Bagpiper, the largest selling spirit brand in the world until recently, to premium brands such as Mcdowell No. 1 Reserve, Mcdowell No. 1 Platinum whisky, Mcdowell Celebration rum, Mcdowell No. 1 Caribou rum , Mcdowell No. 1,  Royal Challenge,  Signature Premier, Antiquity etc.

source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> News> News By Industry> Cons. Products / by M. Padmakshan, ET Bureau / July 30th, 2012

Wipro Technologies Wins Large Multi-Year Contract from Royal Philips Electronics

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Selected as Strategic Global Prime Partner

Wipro Technologies, the Global Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing business of Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT) today announced that the company has signed a large multi-year contract with Royal Philips Electronics as their Global Prime Partner in its Transformational program, towards enabling enhanced business growth and profitability.

As a part of this strategic global engagement, Wipro will work with Philips on their transformational roadmap towards optimizing and enhancing all their business processes of Idea to Market, Market to Order and Order to Cash across a wide spectrum of technology enabling platforms that include Integration, User Interaction and Security & Authorization. Wipro will also be the System Integrator for key initiatives across these Philips’ businesses and platforms.

Jeroen Tas, Chief Information Officer, Royal Philips Electronics said, “As Philips continues to drive performance improvements across its businesses, we would like to reiterate our commitment to invest in innovation and customer intimacy that are at the heart of our transformational Program. We are pleased to bring on board a valuable and like-minded partner like Wipro to help us drive our vision of sustainable growth and profitability.”

N S Bala, Senior Vice President and Global Head – Manufacturing and High-Tech, Wipro Technologies said, “We are delighted to have been chosen as a strategic global Prime Partner by Philips in their transformational journey. Wipro will leverage its strong understanding of the business domain and capability in new and emerging technologies, to enable Philips become more agile, deliver innovative products and solutions to its customers, faster and strengthen their leadership position in the market place.”

Wipro Technologies offers strategic business and technology solutions and advises customers on Business Process Optimization & Engineering, cutting across diverse functional and engineering areas such as Supply Chain Management (SCM), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions (MES). It also enables intuitive man-to-machine interactions, provides industry insights using analytics and drives innovation across intelligent – connected devices for better customer experiences.

source: http://www.wipro.com / press release / Tuesday, July 24th, 2012

Beauty, music & talent: Mangalore has produced all

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Mangalore:

Three internationally known Indian women –  Aishwarya Rai, Shilpa Shetty and Freida Pinto – hail from Mangalore. There’s more to the region’s  beauty palette than these three glamour girls. Bollywood’s super agent Reshma Shetty is believed to be the brains behind Salman Khan’s recent success. Reshma, whose family hails from Mangalore, also manages the Chammak Challo star Kareena Kapoor.

Around the time Aishwarya became the toast of the country, a dusky, leggy lass with a coastal connection emerged: Sheetal Mallar. Her family hails from Padubidri. Sheetal was a prominent feature on international ramps. Having worked for labels like Armani and Fendi, she became the face for Maybelline Cosmetics. Even the male model contingent in India has its fair share of names from this town: India’s best-known fashion choreographer Rahul Dev Shetty and young model Roshan Isaac, to name just two.

In music, singer Shweta Shetty, Bollywood and Tollywood composer Sandeep Chowta and Kannada music director Gurukiran Shetty – all from towns around Mangalore – have had their moments of glory.

While genetics may have something to do with beauty, fashion guru Prasad Bidappa says a subtle socio-cultural evolution has seen families from the region allowing their children to break from traditional career choices. Others cite the fact that Mangaloreans are enterprising, have an appetite for risk-taking and have plenty of role models to choose from within their close-knit community.

Beautiful places produce beautiful people, says Bidappa. “I find the Mangalore-Coorg belt simply breathtaking; it is one of the most beautiful, scenic parts of Karnataka. It gives you both ends of the spectrum. In Aishwarya you have the light-eyed, classical beauty; on the other end is Freida, who is dusky and stunning. Somewhere in between is Shilpa. You have the mix right there.”

Rohit Shetty, the director and cinematographer whose works include ‘Bol Bachchan’, ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Golmaal Returns’, is the only Indian filmmaker to have three Rs 100-crore grossers to his credit.

Says actor Suniel Shetty: “I was born in Mulki and brought up in Mumbai. Bappanadu temple is where I offer prayers.” Suniel is also an entrepreneur like Mangalore-born-and-raised Manmohan Shetty, who founded and developed Adlabs Films Ltd, one of India’s largest media and entertainment firms.

Bidappa argues that talent from smaller towns blossoms when it reaches big cities. “There are a lot of girls in Mangalore who look like Aishwarya. One of the things that work for people whose parents have moved to bigger cities is that they have a broader outlook and are willing to let their children dabble with the arts. You are seeing the same scenario unfold for 20-year-old model Dayana Erappa, whose career picked up after she moved to Bangalore.”

“What helps youngsters from Mangalore as they try to make a mark in the glamour industry is that they have many role models to look up to,” says fashion designer Krishnamani Ballal, who retails under the label Krsna.

“Also, most Mangaloreans can trace their roots back to warrior races or clans. Being enterprising and adventurous is in our genes.”

Says Shilpa, who has strong ties with the city: “My father’s ancestral house is in Karkala, which is green and open. To me, Mangalore is synonymous with connecting with nature.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Mangalore / TNN / July 28th, 2012

MTR still under-leveraged brand: Sanjay Sharma

Business & Economy

Five years after Bangalore-based MTR Foods was acquired by Norwegian foods group  Orkla Brands International  for about $100 million (approx Rs 430 crore then), the Indian breakfast mixes, spices and snacks maker is in no hurry to bring in Orkla’s products such as frozen pizzas and chocolates to India. In Delhi to announce the launch of meal mixes under the Rasoi Magic brand, MTR Foods CEO  Sanjay Sharma  told ET that the eight-decades-old firm is looking for local buys and doubling spends to compete with rivals like Britannia. Excerpts:

Orkla operates in many categories like frozen pizzas, chocolates and confectionery. But we have decided not to bring in Orkla brands into India, at least in the next few years. That’s because we believe MTR is still quite an under-leveraged brand. We need to create a lot more value for MTR first.

But other processed foods companies like Britannia and McCain are betting big on packaged processed foods…

We will invest in these categories depending on how they evolve. Take frozen foods-maybe 0.1% consumers in India buy frozen foods. The category has a long, long way to go. Compare that with spices-branded spices itself is a Rs 8,000-crore business. This is the big space for us right now. Meal mixes is another category we are bullish on. It is nascent-at about Rs 60 crore now, but we expect it to triple by 2014. Internal estimates suggest that the category can grow at a CAGR of 45% in the 2012-14 period.

Breakfast mixes-one of your core categories-has become crowded with multinationals, Indian brands and private labels. How are you coping?

We are going aggressive on advertising, for one. We’ve doubled ad spends. From a ratio of 8% to sales last year, our spends have gone up to 16% of sales.

You’ve recently forayed into packaged snacks in Bangalore. When are you scaling up the category?

We are testing ready-to-eat ethnic snacks in Karnataka. The category is still under development. Our aim is to develop ethnic snacks for specific markets. A pan-India presence in ethnic snacks could take us 5 years.

source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / Home> Interview> India / by Ratna Bhushan / ET Bureau / July 25th, 2012

State gets its largest solar power plant

Records, All, Science & Technology

The plant is built using crystalline silicon photovoltaic technology, which has the longest operational experience, the release said.

A 5-MW eco-friendly solar power plant has been commissioned by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) at Shivanasamudra near Mandya.

BHEL, which has been involved in the design, manufacture, supply, setting up and commissioning of the plant, will operate and maintain it for three years.

According to a release here on Wednesday, this is the largest solar power plant in the State and has been synchronised with the main grid. The solar power is stored as DC power, which is then converted into AC and fed into the 66 kV grid.

The plant is built using crystalline silicon photovoltaic technology, which has the longest operational experience, the release said.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Bangalore / by Staff Reporter / July 26th, 2012