The Data Driver

Dozens of competitive programmers from all over the world descended on Bengaluru this past weekend for India’s biggest programming event: SnackDown 2019 - a global programming tournament organized by CodeChef. The fierce competition lasted five hours and invited contestants to try their hands at 10 complex algorithmic problems. Borys Minaiev from Ukraine and Gennady Korotkevich from Belarus came together to take home the coveted title of SnackDown Champions as well as a cash prize of $10,000.

The 1st runners up were Oleg Merkurev and Aleksei Daniliuk from Russia while the 2nd runner-up slot was claimed by Ji Ruyi and Yuhao Du from China. This victory did not come easily for Borys and Gennady (who now live in Russia). It was a tense battle right down to the finish with the winning team making a successful problem submission during the last 30 seconds of the contest. The final twenty seconds completely changed the fate of the contest. This was a second SnackDown win for Borys and Gennad…

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced the appointments of Ms. Praveena Rai as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Mr. Arif Khan as Chief Digital Officer (CDO) with effect from 20th February 2019 and 18th February 2019, respectively.

As COO, Ms. Praveena Rai will be in-charge of formulating & deploying the marketing, business development, product management and operations strategy in line with NPCI’s overall strategic objectives of simple, secure and seamless consumer experience to further the cause of rapid digitalisation of India. Ms. Rai will drive product penetration, reach and visibility of NPCI’s offerings through suitable partnerships.

With over 20 years of extensive experience, Ms. Rai has built expertise in various facets of payments, cards, retail, transaction, wholesale and commercial banking.

Prior to joining NPCI, she was leading the cash management portfolio at Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited. Ms. Rai was managing payments for Asia at HSBC and was a…

Talent knows no boundaries and this was evident in the NEC Hackathon organized by NEC Laboratories India, an R&D center under NEC Technologies India. Themed ‘Smart Logistics & Transportation’, the event attracted numerous young Indian talent with their creative ideas on using the auto-rickshaw to solve India’s social challenges in the field of transportation and logistics. Some of these challenges facing India include road congestion, lack of effective last mile delivery channels, inefficient and fragmented logistics operation, among others.
In the first round, a total of 1,563 teams registered for the hackathon by submitting their creative ideas and solutions and subsequently 30 teams were shortlisted for the final round of the competition held on 16 - 17 February in Bangalore.
Commenting on the occasion, Dr. Akihiko Iketani, Head- NEC Laboratories India, said, “It’s a great pleasure to see the awe-inspiring solutions coming from these talented participants. The NEC Hackathon…

An extensive survey based study titled, ‘Countering Misinformation (Fake News) in India’ by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Factly has found that people below the age of 20 or those above the age of 50 are most susceptible to be swayed by fake news.
The report is based on an extensive survey covering 891 respondents, along with structured interviews of 30 interviewees from the Technology & Internet Service Providers, Government officials, Law Enforcement, Media & Influencers, Fact Checkers, Academia Political Parties.
The report suggests that while newspapers still remain the top source of information for most, those relatively new to use of technology/internet (or the late adopters) still do not grasp the concept of fake information over these platforms. A substantial section of people is not aware of fact checking organisations and the role of agencies to verify news.
According to the report, most people use social network platforms to connect with frie…

At Aero India 2019, Bengaluru, Navratna Defence PSU, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Hughes India have entered into a Teaming Agreement for design, development, supply, installation, integration and commissioning of Satellite Communication solutions for helicopters under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.

Anandi Ramalingam, Director (Marketing), BEL, and Mr Partho Banerjee, President, Hughes India, signed the MoU in the presence of Mr Nataraj Krishnappa, Director (Other Units), BEL, on February 20, 2019.


The Teaming Agreement will enable MoD’s strategic users to get enabled with helicopter-based Satellite Communication links for real-time and assured communications using ISRO's Ku band satellites. Through this agreement, BEL and Hughes India are collaborating using their respective
state-of-the-art technologies and capabilities in developing these integrated and sophisticated helicopter solutions.

BEL is a Navratna defence PSU with expertise in the design, developm…

Since announcing a deepened partnership in September 2018, Ericsson and Juniper Networks have secured more than 20 new customers worldwide. The two companies are today unveiling further enhancements to their joint 5G transport network and security solutions to meet increasing demand.

Service providers who are looking to deploy 5G-ready networks are turning to the combined Ericsson and Juniper portfolios to deliver the required transport infrastructure, operations and service delivery solutions they need that remove complexity and ensure ease-of-use.

Per Narvinger, Head of Product Area Networks, Ericsson, says: “The positive market response to our expanded partnership with Juniper is a testimony to the strength of our joint end-to-end transport solutions. We hope to sustain this momentum by further enhancing our leading, high-performance transport portfolio to ensure that next-generation networks continue to benefit our customers.”

Manoj Leelanivas, Chief Product Officer, Juniper Netw…