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  • Palo Alto Networks Forecasts Asia Pacific’s Cybersecurity Landscape: Predictions for 2025 and Beyond – CRN

    Palo Alto Networks,  released its 2025 cybersecurity predictions for the Asia Pacific region, outlining five key trends that cyber practitioners can expect to unfold in the coming twelve months and position their organisations for a more secure future.

    Organisations across the APAC region have emphasised embedding AI into business processes in 2024. This includes cybersecurity processes, where organisations and their adversaries are engaged in an AI arms race. But alarmingly, according to a recent PwC report, more than 40% of leaders say they do not understand the cyber risks posed by emerging technologies like Generative AI. In 2025, AI will become central to cybersecurity strategy with organisations using AI to proactively mitigate risk. Crucially, they will also seek to secure their own AI models.

    Swapna Bapat, Managing Director and Vice President, India & SAARC, Palo Alto Networks:
    “In 2025, the cybersecurity landscape will enter a pivotal phase, driven by the dual forces of AI-powered innovation and increasingly sophisticated threats. Cyber adversaries are leveraging AI at unprecedented levels, orchestrating attacks with precision and speed. To counter this, organisations must embrace a unified, proactive security approach powered by transparent, ethical AI. The ability to centralise and analyse data effectively will determine who stays ahead in this high-stakes game. Trust, adaptability, and innovation will be the cornerstones of resilience, ensuring organisations can safeguard not just their operations but also their reputations in this rapidly evolving digital era.”

    From the anticipated surge in high-impact cyber attacks to the integration of quantum AI for energy-efficient solutions, these predictions for 2025 serve as essential guidelines for organisations to shape their cybersecurity strategies and maximize the potential of AI technologies.

    1. Cyber Infrastructure will be centred around a single unified data security platform
    In 2025, the organisations will address increased complexity by reducing the number of cybersecurity tools in use, and shifting to a unified platform, offering enhanced visibility and control. The ongoing cyber skills shortage will continue to accelerate this trend. A unified platform will provide end-to-end visibility and context, spanning code repositories, cloud workloads, networks, and SOCs. Ultimately this creates a more holistic security architecture with fewer dashboards. The convergence of all security layers onto a unified platform will optimise resources, improve overall efficiency, and enable organisations to build more resilient, adaptive defences against evolving threats

    2. 2025 is the year deepfakes go mainstream in APAC
    Deepfakes are already being used for nefarious purposes in the APAC region. While some have been used to spread political misinformation, the most effective attacks have targeted corporations for financial gain, like the employee at a Hong Kong engineering firm duped into wiring millions of dollars to a scammer who had used deepfakes to imitate the CFO and executive team on a video conference.

    Savvy criminals will take note and use ever-improving generative AI technology to launch credible deepfake attacks. The use of audio deepfakes will also become more widespread in these attacks, as the available technology allows for highly credible voice cloning. We can expect deepfakes to be used alone or as part of a larger attack much more often in 2025.

    3. Beyond the Quantum security hype: what to expect in 2025
    Quantum computing projects are spreading across the region, with governments and venture capital firms investing heavily in local initiatives.

    While quantum attacks on widely used encryption methods are not yet feasible, nation-state-backed threat actors are expected to intensify their “harvest now, decrypt later” tactics, targeting highly classified data with the intent to unlock it when quantum technology advances. This poses a risk to governments and businesses, with the potential to jeopardise civilian and military communications, undermine critical infrastructure, and overcome security protocols for most internet-based financial transactions. We will likely also see nation state actors target organisations developing quantum computers themselves, in corporate espionage attacks.

    To counteract these threats effectively, all organisations will need to act and adopt quantum-resistant defences, including quantum-resistant tunnelling, comprehensive crypto data libraries, and other technologies with enhanced crypto-agility. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently released final standards for post-quantum cryptography. Transitioning to these algorithms will help secure data against future quantum threats. Organisations that require high security should explore quantum key distribution (QKD) as a means of ensuring secure communications. As quantum computing continues to become more and more of a reality and potential threats loom, it will be essential to adopt these measures to keep pace with the rapidly evolving cyber landscape, prevent data theft, and ensure the integrity of their critical systems.

    For now, CIOs can debunk any hype around this topic to the board. Though significant progress with quantum annealing has been made, military-grade encryption has still not been broken.

    4. Transparency will be the cornerstone for maintaining customer trust in the AI era
    Regulators in the APAC region are starting to zone in on the data protection and cybersecurity implications of the growing use of AI models. This is part of an overall bid to build trust in AI use and encourage AI-driven innovation.

    In 2025, APAC legislators’ AI focus on ethics, data protection and transparency, will remain, However, increased use of AI models will lead to greater emphasis being placed on AI security and the integrity and reliability of the data being used. Transparency and proactive communication about AI model mechanics—specifically regarding data collection, training datasets, and decision making processes—will be essential for building customer trust.

    5. Increased focus on product integrity and supply chain security in 2025
    In 2025, organisations can be expected to focus more on product integrity and supply chain resilience. Specifically, they will conduct much more thorough risk assessments, consider accountability and legal implications of business outages, and review insurance arrangements.

    In cloud environments where complexity and scale amplify risks, real-time visibility has become a necessity. Expect to see greater focus on comprehensive monitoring involving continuous tracking of both infrastructure and application performance metrics.

  • Tech Mahindra and AWS Collaborate to Transform Telecom Networks with Generative AI – CRN

    Tech Mahindra, has signed a multi-year Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to develop an Autonomous Networks Operations Platform (ANOP) designed for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and enterprise customers. This platform by Tech Mahindra is built on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and generative AI (GenAI) services powered by AWS, enabling customers to transition their network operations from an on-premises infrastructure to a real-time proactive and preventive model operating on a hybrid cloud.

    The collaboration combines Tech Mahindra’s GenAI capabilities and telecom networks expertise with Amazon SageMaker, a service for building, training, and deploying machine learning models for any industry use case with fully managed infrastructure, tools, and workflows. The ANOP platform empowers CSPs to enhance Network Operations Center (NOC) productivity for teams managing physical and cloud infrastructure by more than 50%. It reduces field visits by over 15% and shortens Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) for network and service incidents by more than 30%. The platform accelerates the implementation of network and service configurations, achieving improvements of over 30% in speed and efficiency. Additionally, the collaboration includes Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service providing high-performing foundation models (FMs) from leading AI enterprises via a single API. It offers essential capabilities for building GenAI applications with security, privacy, and responsible AI practices.

    Manish Mangal, Chief Technology Officer, Telecom & Global Business Head, Network Services at Tech Mahindra, said, “The communications industry is at a pivotal junction of deploying disaggregated, virtualised and cloud-native RAN networks. Our collaboration with AWS empowers telcos to simplify operations, modernise networks, and unlock revenue through advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning. By integrating AWS’s GenAI, our Autonomous Networks Operations Platform delivers real-time insights, intelligent workflows, and supports O-RAN adoption for efficient, proactive network management.”

    Tech Mahindra is also testing and validating O-RAN functions on Amazon’s EKS Anywhere (EKS-A) platform. The joint testing and validation of the platform for Distributed Unit and Central Unit network functions will accelerate the cloudification of RAN at the edge, thereby leveraging the power of both organisations for wider industry benefits.

    Robin Harwani, Head of Telco Industry Solutions at AWS, said, “The collaboration to integrate AWS’s AI/ML, including generative AI offerings to build Tech Mahindra’s Autonomous Networks Operations Platform, is an important step to help telco operators bring acceleration in their network operations transformation. Through this effort, network operators can get generative AI-enabled actionable and just-in-time recommendations such as for NOC operations, field dispatch optimisation, as well as automated self-healing for preventive actions. This will make it easier for operators to more proactively manage and optimise network performance and reduce their operational expenditure.”

    Tech Mahindra is a trusted transformation partner, offering leading capabilities in networks, engineering, and experience to simplify business complexities, drive transformation, and accelerate monetisation. It is currently implementing ANOP for a leading communications provider in Europe to enhance network operations through process automation and optimisation.

  • Commvault Launches Clumio Backtrack: Enabling Rapid Recovery of Massive Datasets on Amazon S3 – CRN

    Commvault, announced Clumio Backtrack, a new capability that will enable enterprises to use automation to rapidly revert objects – or pieces of data – stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to a specific version at a specific point and time. This makes it quick and easy for cloud operations, IT, and security teams to recover data from errors, accidents, or cyberattacks, almost as if they were able to turn back the clock to the last known good state. But, the capability goes well beyond that in terms of scale.

    Leveraging Amazon S3 Versioning, Backtrack will uniquely empower organizations to recover datasets of practically any size, from individual objects to whole Amazon S3 buckets where billions of objects may be stored.

    At-Scale, Automated Object Recovery in Amazon S3
    The magnitude of this innovation becomes clear when a large-scale recovery is considered. Today, teams can use powerful Amazon S3 Versioning capabilities to recover specific objects with ease. So, if a piece of data in Amazon S3 is lost, deleted, or altered, users can easily go back in time and revert to a good copy of that data. Commvault’s technology is taking that premise to a new level of scale.

    Via a serverless architecture that allows it to scale dynamically, Backtrack can revert billions of objects to earlier versions, radically changing how quickly and easily large-scale datasets can be rolled back – even seconds after an issue comes to light.
    There are so many instances where the ability to rapidly revert billions of objects to a point in time would be very useful: maybe before someone mistakenly deleted the data; or before an application started sending incorrect or corrupt data; or before a cybercriminal encrypted the objects and demanded a ransom.

    Object Storage Services: Critical for Storing Massive Datasets
    The cloud artificial intelligence (AI) market is projected to grow to over $647 billion by 20301 and with the intense data generation from AI and machine learning (ML) as a huge catalyst for data growth in the cloud2, more and more organisations are turning to object storage services like Amazon S3 that can handle both the data volume and complexity of modern AI workloads.

    “With the increasing complexity of enterprise data environments, businesses need fast, scalable, and secure data recovery solutions for the cloud-first world,” said Woon Jung, CTO – Cloud Native, Commvault. “We’re thrilled to offer a level of granularity and point-in-time options for object recovery that spans billions of objects and can help customers drive even greater benefits from their cloud investments.”

    “At Presidio, we understand the critical need for agility and resilience in today’s cloud world. As Commvault continues to push the boundaries of cyber resilience and cloud innovation, we’re thrilled to extend our collaboration to deliver true resilience and operational continuity to large-scale AWS environments,” said Raphael Meyerowitz, Partner Go to Market VP, Presidio. “Commvault’s new Clumio Backtrack empowers enterprises to safeguard their critical data with rapid recovery capabilities for complex, large-scale challenges.”

    Over the last year, Commvault has made significant strides in supporting cloud-first customers, with its recent acquisition of Clumio and availability of Commvault Cloud offerings, including Cloud Rewind™, Air Gap Protect, and Cleanroom™ Recovery across multiple clouds. The launch of this solution further extends Commvault’s expertise in cyber resilience to deliver enhanced recovery capabilities for enterprises worldwide.

  • OpenText Augments its India CoE presence with new facility in Bangalore – CRN

    OpenText, announced its continued growth in India with expansion of its Center of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. The new facility is located at Embassy Golf Links Road, and spans over 70,000 sq ft. This strategic investment comes on the heels of a 15% average yearly growth OpenText’s workforce across the country as well as recent expansion in Hyderabad and underscores the company’s commitment to expanding its presence in the region. The OpenText Bengaluru office has experienced remarkable growth, expanding its workforce by approximately 194% over the past two years, effectively tripling its headcount.

    Earlier this year, the company announced its OpenText 3.0 strategy, a significant evolution in the company’s approach to AI and digital transformation, focusing on leveraging advanced technologies to meet the changing needs of businesses. India team will play an instrumental role in the OpenText 3,0 strategy and will deliver several innovations globally and has prompted the expansion and growth for OpenText in the country.

    OpenText India will continue to drive advancements in OpenText’s Business Clouds, focusing on AI, cybersecurity, and DevOps. For over a decade, OpenText has been making substantial investments in local talent through apprenticeship and upskilling programs. Key business units in Bengaluru—including Engineering, Professional Services, Customer Support, Customer Success Services, IT, Finance, and Cloud Operations—have all seen significant growth during this period.

    “India is OpenText’s biggest center of innovation globally and the new facility in Bengaluru further solidifies our presence here. Our growing team in India will significantly contribute to OpenText’s next phase of innovation and the inauguration of the second facility within six months proves that India’s exceptional talent is crucial to our global strategy,” said Madhu Ranganathan, President and Chief Financial Officer, at OpenText. “We will continue to invest in the growth and learning of our India based colleagues who cater to the needs of our customers globally.

    “The growth of OpenText India and opening of our new Bengaluru facility represents a strategic leap forward in advancing OpenText’s 3.0 vision for global innovation and excellence. Our continued investment in India is aimed at building a strong team that develops and delivers AI-integrated solutions. We are creating an environment that fuels digital transformation and aligns seamlessly with our mission to reimagine information management on a global scale,” said Manoj Nagpal, Managing Director, OpenText India. With over 6,000 engineers & services staff across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai, the engineering & services team at India CoE are integral to the company’s operations, delivering impactful product & solutions to customers globally. The team primarily focuses on product development & services across OpenText’s AI, Content, Experience, Business Network, Cybersecurity, Developer, DevOps and IT Operations clouds.

  • Distinguished Alumnus Awards 2023 – IIT Roorkee Honors Global Achievements on its Foundation Day

    Distinguished Alumnus Awards

    November 25, 2024: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) celebrated its Foundation Day with the theme “Empowering India: Nurturing Education, Innovation, and Cultural Legacy.” The event was marked by the launch of the IITR Vision Document, outlining the institute’s roadmap for fostering interdisciplinary research, technological innovation, and sustainable development. The celebration also highlighted IIT Roorkee’s enduring commitment to driving impactful initiatives in education, research, and societal transformation, reflecting its vision of empowering the nation through excellence in science and technology. The celebration also recognized outstanding Alumni through the presentation of the Distinguished Alumnus Awards of 2023. The DAA are given to alumni of the University of Roorkee (UOR) or IIT Roorkee (IITR) to recognize their exceptional contributions in six categories. Nominations for DAA are invited from all over the world. The contributions should be self-evident to the peers in the category, namely Academic or Research Excellence, Excellence in Engineering or Technology Innovation, Excellence in Leadership in the Government or Public Sector, Excellence in Leadership in the Private Sector, Entrepreneurial Excellence, Excellence in Service to the Society. The Distinguished Young Alumnus Award (DYAA) is conferred to IIT Roorkee Alumni below 40.

    The Outstanding Service Awards (OSA) recognizes Excellence in Academics and Research by strengthening the IIT Roorkee community’s academic, research and development efforts. By enabling faculty and students to showcase and promote their work nationally and internationally. And by promoting Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy from State or Central Government or private industry. Nominations for DA Awards are invited from all over the world.

    This recognition took place against the backdrop of the tranquil surroundings in front of the iconic Main building, creating a serene ambience for the occasion.

    Distinguished Alumnus Awardees:

    Prof. Bhim Singh (1977 – B.E. – Electrical Engineering): Prof. Singh has been ABB Chair Professor from September 2007 to August 2012. Prof. Singh has been CEA Chair Professor from September 2012 to August 2017. He has been Head of Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Delhi from July 2014 to August 2016. Prof. Singh has been Dean, Academics at IIT Delhi from August 2016 to August 2019. He has been JC Bose Fellow of DST, Government of India from December 2015 to June 2021. He is currently serving as a SERB National Science Chair and an Emeritus Professor at IIT Delhi since July 2021.

    Prof. Ayodhya Nath Tiwari (1980- M.Sc. – Physics): He is a multifaceted personality as an outstanding scientist, successful entrepreneur, educationist/teacher and provider of frequent advisories to various institutions/agencies. He is the Chairman and Cofounder, SOLTIWA AG company in Switzerland. Prof. Tiwari was head of the Laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics, Empa-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology.

    Shri Yuvraj Mehra (1971 – B.E. – Chemical Engineering): He is a licensed professional engineer and is currently serving as Managing Principal Consultant for Mehra Consulting Services, LLC since 2012. Through MCS provided contracted process engineering consulting services to PetroSkills, Hellervik Midstream LLC, and Saudi Aramco. Mr. Mehra retired from Saudi Aramco (2000-2011) as Gas and Light-ends Process Engineering Consultant in the Process & Control Systems Department.

    Dr. G. Madhusudan Reddy (1987 – M.E. – Mechanical): Dr. G. Madhusudhan Reddy obtained his bachelor’s degree from Kakatiya University in 1985, his master’s from IIT Roorkee in 1987, and his doctoral degree from IIT Madras in 1999. He formerly served as the Director of Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), DRDO Hyderabad, where he led a strong team in the domain of critical advanced materials & technologies in defence systems. His inspiring leadership enabled DMRL to be recognized as best Science Laboratory in the form of ‘Titanium Trophy’ by Defence Minister on 18 Dec 2020. Currently, he is an Adjunct Professor at Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, NIT Warangal.

    Shri Sanjay Kumar Agarwal (1987 – B.E. – ECE): Shri Sanjay Kumar Agarwal joined the Indian Revenue Service (Indirect Taxes and Customs) in 1988. He is currently Chairman of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The Department he is heading is engaged in collection of Indirect Tax revenue for the Union Government from GST, Central Excise and Customs duties and the task of border control for goods and passengers. He has worked in various capacities in Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax and GST field formations in the States of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madya Pradesh, Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

    Shri Vikas Kumar (1987-B.E.-Electrical): Dr. Vikas Kumar, is a graduate in Electrical Engineering (1987) from University of Roorkee (now IIT). He did his Masters from IIT/Delhi in Opto-Electronics & Optical Communications. He belongs to 1988 batch of Indian Railway Traffic Service. He has more than 34 years of experience in all phases of Rail based Urban Transportation Projects including 20 years of experience with DMRC, the largest MRTS system in India having 286 stations (390 KMS network). In Delhi Metro, he has worked in various capacities viz. Dy/Addl. General Manager, General Manager, Executive Director and Director/Operations before being elevated to the apex level. Presently, he is heading the organization as its Managing Director.

    Shri Anand Ramamoorthy (1996 – B.E. – Metallurgy): Mr. Anand Ramamoorthy (1996 – B.E. – Metallurgy) is a seasoned, well-rounded technology executive with over two decades of global experience building high performance teams, introducing flagship products, scripting executable strategies, driving nonlinear business growth, and leading organizational transformation. Mr. Anand is currently Managing Director at Micron India and is responsible for R&D, engineering, operations and sales. Micron is a $30B global leader in semiconductor memory and storage chips.

    Shri Sandeep Garg (1981 – B.E. – Electrical): Shri Sandeep Garg is a Bachelor of Technology from IIT Roorkee and an alumnus of Harvard Business School. He has over 37 years of experience in core infrastructure sectors and is currently the Managing Director of Welspun Enterprises Limited. He also serves as Managing Director of Adani Welspun Exploration Limited. He has been associated with the Welspun Group since July 2012. In his current role at Welspun, he, along with his team, has been instrumental in driving the company’s remarkable turnaround. Notable achievements along this journey include receiving the prestigious Gold award from the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways for Excellence in Project Management for the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.

    Shri Ravi Kant Gupta (1981 – B.E. – Civil): He started his initial career in Larsen & Toubro Limited and Engineers India Limited. In 1983, he joined UP State Bridge Corporation as Assistant Engineer and had an illustrious career, while leading a team of Engineers for many prestigious Bridges and Building projects. Some of the projects handled by him include construction of Twin Bridge on NH-17 over River Periyar and Chandrasekhar Nayak Stadium with a sitting capacity of 30,000 at Thiruvananthapuram which was completed in a challenging time schedule of 120 days, from start to finish. In recognition of this exceptional achievement, CM of Kerala awarded a Gold Medal to Er. R.K. Gupta.

    Shri Sunil Goyal (1989 – B.E. – E&C): He heads the India operations of Sopra Steria, in the capacity of Dy. Chief Executive Officer. Under this capacity he is responsible for all business, delivery and enabling functions. The organization is a part of Sopra Steria Group, a €5.8 billion conglomerate, headquartered in Paris and one of the top 5 French IT Services company in France having a strength of 60,000 professionals worldwide operating from 30 countries. Mr. Sunil started his career as a telecom support professional at Unitel post which he got into managing sales at Wipro. He then decided to become an entrepreneur and co-founded Momentum India in the year 1993 with almost no seed capital, along with his senior from college.

    Dinesh kumar Likhi (1981 – B.E. – Metallurgical Engineering): has an illustrious career of nearly four decades culminating in the highest position of Chairman and Managing Director of a Defence Public Sector Undertaking, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited: MIDHANI, from 2015 till 2020 and CEO & Director of Utkarsha Aluminium Dhatu Nigam Limited from 2019 till 2020. He has also contributed to the growth and turnaround strategy of Steel Authority of India Limited (2000-2010). He is a nominated Director on the Boards of Bhilai JP Cement Limited and Jaiprakash Power Limited. In addition, he is a strategic advisor to special steel companies viz. Jindal Stainless Steel and Sarloha Advance Materials (Kalyani Group company). Dr. Likhi has also incorporated two startups in the field of consultancy and services with India as a focus country.

    Distinguished Young Alumnus Awardees:

    Mr. Puneet Jaggi (2010 – B.Tech. – Chemical Engineering): Mr. Puneet Jaggi (2010-BTech-Chemical Engineering) is the founder, Gensol Group, and Co-Founder of BluSmart, India’s first born-electric, full-stack, vertically integrated EV ride-hailing service and EV charging infrastructure network. Mr. Puneet’s journey in clean energy and sustainable mobility is rooted in his background as a Chemical Engineer from IIT Roorkee. Transitioning from the traditional Oil and Gas sector, he pursued his passion for clean energy, co-founding Gensol along with Anmol Jaggi.

    Mr. Sourabh Gupta (2016 – B.Tech. – Metallurgy): Mr. Sourabh Gupta touchstone of a true leader is the disruptive potential of the enterprise he/she leads. Sourabh Gupta, the CEO and Co-founder of Skit.ai had a big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) when he embarked on the journey of creating an AI-based technology solution that will revolutionize contact center support across industries, the globe, and forever. He co-founded the company during the final year of engineering, along with Akshay Deshraj, his batchmate, the CTO at Skit.ai.

    Mr. Abhishek Agarwal (2016 – B.Tech. – Mechanical Engineering): He is a passionate entrepreneur with a strong focus on social impact. He is the founder of Farmley – a new age healthy snacking brand specializing in dry fruits & nuts. Over the past 6 years, Abhishek and his team have worked consistently to establish deep backend linkages with over 5000+ farmers across India and even internationally. This has enabled the farmers to have much better market access, resulting in higher incomes.

    Ms. Pooja Devi (2010 – M.Tech. – Nanotechnology): She is a Principal Scientist, Materials Science and Sensor Applications (MSSA) in CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh. Her major research interest includes materials and devices design for Hydrogen production, water/air pollutants degradation, and water pollutants monitoring. She has established methods for synthesizing various materials such as metallic nanostructures, transition metal oxides, semiconductors, carbonaceous nanostructured materials, 2D materials, MXenes, etc. She has published around 72 research papers in high-impact journals, edited 05 books as lead editor, published 18 book chapters.

    Mr. Ghanshyam Pilania (2007 – B.Tech. – Metallurgy): He works as a Senior Engineer in the Probabilistic Design and Materials Informatics team at GE Global Research (GE Aerospace) at Niskayuna. His current research portfolio highlights technical efforts on informatics-driven design and optimization of functional and structural materials, materials for sustainability and probabilistic analytics for strategy.

    Outstanding Service Awardees:

    Shri Aditya Gupta (1974 – B.E. – Mechanical Engineering), (1976 – M.E.- Machine Design): He has been providing social services to our society – especially to IITR alumni, and the institute since 1996. Over the past 27 years, Aditya has worked tirelessly to generate belongingness and cohesiveness among IIT Roorkee Alumni in North America and California, home to the largest alumni concentration in USA. His efforts gave birth to IIT Roorkee Heritage Foundation (IITRHF) in 2007. He is part of founding team and board member of IITRHF since its launch in 2007, and serving as current President of this non-profit tax-deductible charitable organization.

    Shri Vivek K. Varma (1983 – B.E. – Industrial Engineering), (1985 – M.E. – Mechanical Engineering): He is a globally recognized business technology executive, active alumnus and servant-leader with over 30 years of proven track record in India, Australia, and the USA. He has excelled as an academician, public servant, researcher, consultant, entrepreneur, and innovator. After teaching in the Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Department and engaging in public service, Vivek earned a Ph.D. in the field of Decision Support Systems from The University of Melbourne, Australia. He then moved to the USA to pursue a career in technology innovation and consulting.

    Shri B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Roorkee, expressed his deepest gratitude, “Our alumni embody the legacy of IIT Roorkee, driving progress through their innovation, leadership, and technology acceleration. Their remarkable achievements across diverse fields reflect the core values of our institution. Today, we honor their successes and their enduring bond with their alma mater. Congratulations to all the awardees—may they continue to inspire future generations.”

    While congratulating the awardees Prof. K.K. Pant, Director, IIT Roorkee, said: “It is a moment of immense pride for IIT Roorkee to honour these extraordinary individuals who have distinguished themselves through exemplary accomplishments and transformative contributions. These awards not only recognize their remarkable achievements but also reaffirm the impact of IIT Roorkee’s education and values. I congratulate all the awardees and look forward to their continued association with the institute in building a brighter future for society.”

    Prof. R.D. Garg, Dean of Resources & Alumni Affairs, IIT Roorkee, said, “Our alumni represent the lifeline of IIT Roorkee, enriching our legacy through their outstanding achievements and global impact. The Distinguished Alumnus Awards and Outstanding Service Awards are a testament to their excellence and dedication. I thank the awardees for their invaluable contributions and support to the IIT Roorkee community and congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition.”

  • NATURALGAS/NATURALGASMINI Option Contract Expiration – Upstox

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    No need to issue cheques by investors while subscribing to IPO. Just write the bank account number and sign in the application form to authorise your bank to make payment in case of allotment. No worries for refund as the money remains in investor’s account.
    Stockbrokers can accept securities as margin from their clients only by way of a pledge in the depository system w.e.f. 1st September 2020.
    Update your email ID and mobile number with your stockbroker/depository participant and receive an OTP directly from the depository on your registered email ID and/or mobile number to create a pledge.
    Check your securities/mutual funds/bonds in the Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) issued by NSDL/CDSL every month.

    Attention Investors: SEBI has established an Online Dispute Resolution Portal (ODR Portal) for resolving disputes in the Indian Securities Market. This circular streamlines the existing dispute resolution mechanism, offering online conciliation and arbitration, benefiting investors and listed companies. https://www.sebi.gov.in/legal/circulars/jul-2023/online-resolution-of-disputes-in-the-indian-securities-market_74794.html

    ODR portal for Investors – https://smartodr.in/login

  • Muhurat Trading 2024 | 1 Nov | 6 PM – 7 PM

    Iss Diwali, Kuch Naya. Start your investing journey with this 1-hour Diwali exclusive!

    Muhurat Trading is a special one-hour trading and investing session held every Diwali to mark the beginning of a New Samvat Year. Investors consider Muhurat Trading auspicious and believe it will bring wealth and prosperity throughout the coming year. This year, make your Muhurat Trading even better by using our TBT Engine – features powered by Tick-by-Tick data.

    Muhurat Trading is taking place on Friday, 1 November 2024 as per the following schedule:

    Keep the following in mind:

    – Keep your account funded in advance for a smooth trading and investing session

    – MTF (Margin Trading Facility) and Margin Pledge will be unavailable on 1 Nov

    – All intraday positions (including cover and bracket orders) will be squared off after 6:45 PM

    – Stocks bought on Thur, 31 Oct can’t be sold on Fri,1 Nov (during Muhurat Trading hours)

    – Trades executed on 31 Oct will be settled on 4 Nov

    – Standard Fund Withdrawal requests placed after 8 AM on 31 Oct will be processed on 4 Nov

    – Instant Fund Withdrawal facility will not be available on 1 Nov

    – Credit bill of all segments of 31 Oct will be unavailable for trading on 1 Nov

    – Call and Trade facility will be available between 5:45 PM to 7:00 PM

    – Refer to the NSE Circular to learn more.

    Here’s wishing you a truly bright and prosperous Diwali and a Happy New Year! 

     

  • Lower petrol and diesel consumption, make transportation sustainable in India: Experts

    Petrol pumps in Rajasthan to remain shut from March 10-12 to protest high VAT

    Lower petrol and diesel consumption, make transportation sustainable in India: ExpertsIANS

    As the enterprises strive to embed the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework into their core business model, industry experts on Tuesday said they are trying to make transportation in India more sustainable by lowering the consumption of petroleum and diesel.

    India has been seeing record petrol and diesel consumption in vehicle sales, while electric vehicles are yet to make a mark. According to the Petroleum Ministry, though electric vehicle sales are getting traction, it’s still only 6.85 per cent of total vehicles registered.

    “Fossil fuels used for generating electricity and transportation are two big elephants in the room. India consumes close to 150 million metric tonnes of petrol and diesel for transportation, said BillionE Co-Founder Mustafa Wajid at the NDTV World Summit.

    Wajid said the group is trying to address this problem and has deployed “electric trucks”.

    India has been seeing record petrol and diesel consumption in vehicle sales

    India has been seeing record petrol and diesel consumption in vehicle salesIANS

    “Decarbonising the transport sector at one level is our corporate objective. The name Billion means we would like to do a billion kilometres of decarbonised transportation,” he added.

    India’s transportation requirements have multiplied by three times in the last three years and now stand at 3 tonnes kilometres. It is growing faster than the GDP, he said.

    Wajid attributed it to the “increased urbanisation, consumerism, and e-commerce sector. At BillionE we would like to see how to make this transportation more sustainable.”

    The expert also lauded India’s Carbon trading scheme expected to be effective by 2026.

    “The vision of the government is to create a carbon market like you have the stock market. The creation of the stock market took a lot of time. And digitisation happened recently, in the last two decades. The process is on, and policies are being drafted. We are optimistic, we will see it kicking off in 2026,” he said.

    “Carbon credits will come. It is not in the rearview mirror anymore. There will be challenges but good organisations who can adapt and understand will be generating carbon credits. There will be a very vibrant market,” he added.

    Further, the experts also deliberated on the challenges that companies face in following ESGs.

    According to Ajay Pillai, Partner Sustainability and Climate Change, Deloitte’s quality of data and availability of reliable data to report; awareness level and expertise within the system, and intent required from the top management are the key problems in adopting ESG practices.

    Gagandeep Sethi, Senior VP, Integrated Operations and Sustainability & Responsibility, Pernod Ricard India said the company has a “very comprehensive ESG programme under the umbrella name ‘good times from a good place’”.

    “It is super aligned to ESG principles and UN SDGs with its core elements of nurturing terrain, land from which we draw all our resources. Everything that we do, we have to ensure we restore that balance of the earth.

    “Secondly, circular making. While we produce products to delight customers, we do it sustainably. The third element is about valuing people,” Sethi said.

    (With inputs from IANS)

     

  • Newsroom – Apple (IN)

  • Why Early Talent Identification Matters for Young Minds – Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar


    From left: Dr Mukta Karmarkar, Balajit Shetty, Kushal Hegde, Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, Dr. Narayan Desai, Dr. Paromita Roy, Dr. Sameena Manasawala, Dr. Devasena Desai, Dr Heidrun Stoeger and Malati Kalmadi.

    Kaveri Gifted Education Center Completes 10 years of its pioneering efforts in gifted education.

    Over 8 million gifted children from India are waiting to be identified and nurtured.

    PUNE: “Children gifted with enormous talent are important as they are the ones who are going to lead the country. So, early identification of the talent and nurturing the same in the right direction is of paramount importance”, opined Padma Vibhushan Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar after he inaugurated the International Conference on Gifted Education 2024. The conference is organized by The Kaveri College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Pune in association with Kaveri Gifted Education and Research Center (KGERC) at the Shankuntala Shetty Auditorium of Kaveri Group’s Erandwane Campus. Indian Council of Social Science Research has also extended support to this conference. Gifted education is the set of educational practices for students who are considered gifted or talented.

    Sighting an example of Lokta’s Law of scientific productivity Dr Mashelkar said, “Children with high talent are difficult to find, but it is important to find them early and an effort should be made to unfold their natural potential rather than molding them for a particular subject. Innovation should be encouraged from the grassroots level and it should be by the people for the people. While dealing with the children today, we must consider the fact that they were born in another time and are well informed due to the digital tools at their disposal.”

    “One must not forget that Education is equal to the Future and parents too have an important role to play in this regard. How to think and what to think is something that is required to be taught to children gifted with high potential. The growth of various countries was largely driven by diverse aspects. However, India’s growth will be driven by IT which stands for Indian Talent“, he added.

    Malati Kalmadi, Founder and Director of Kaveri Gifted Education and Research Center (KGERC) said, “It is indeed very gratifying to see that Dr. Mashelkar inaugurated KGERC and today when we are celebrating 10 years by way of organizing this international conference, he is the Chief Guest. The attention for gifted education is increasing globally with over 21 countries in the world having policies in place for the same. NEP 2020 has some related elements but a lot more attention is required to create a thoughtfully designed structure and framework for gifted education so that gifted children get the opportunity that they deserve.”

    “We have set up Talent Hubs in the institutions of Kaveri Group that focus on identifying potential on parameters like STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and Art sector at an early stage. Facets like spiritual and emotional well-being are also given due importance. Millions of gifted children from various parts of the country are waiting to be identified and nurtured. According to an estimate, the population of such gifted children who have enormous potential in India is in the range of 7.32 to 8.25 million in the age group of 6- 18, So collective efforts are required to untap this huge pool of talent“, Malati Kalmadi added.

    ‘Nurturing Buddhiman Children – A Practitioner’s Guide’ was released on the occasion. This book is jointly authored by Dr Devasena Desai, Dr. Sameena Manasawala, and Dr. Paromita Roy. The book is published by Kaveri Gifted Education and Research Center and Vishwakarma Publications. Dr. Sameeena Manasawala and Dr. Devasena Desai were felicitated at the hands of Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar for their outstanding contribution to this field of gifted education.

    Dr. Heidrun Stoeger, Professor of Educational Science at the University of Regensburg, Germany delivered the Keynote address on the topic ‘Mentoring and its Significance for Talent Development’.

    Kushal Hegde, President Kannada Sangha, Pune was present on the occasion along with Balajit Shetty, Dr. Devasena Desai, Dr. Mukta Karmarkar, and Sumathi Srinivasan from the Kaveri Group of Institutes. Deepa Sathe anchored the program