Google announces free scholarship in India to Train Job Seekers in Digital Technologies

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November 19, 2021

Technology giant Google announced its plans of offering 100,000 free scholarships for Indian job seekers to help them gain the skills that tech companies are currently seeking in employees. The surge in demand for highly skilled workers can be witnessed in the technology industry of India.

The program aims to bridge the digital skill gap between Indian job seekers and employers, which would help in meeting the market demand of trained specialists. Google has collaborated with NASSCOM Foundation, Safeducate, and TATA Strive to offer this scholarship program. The companies will identify underprivileged learners across India and provide them with free enrollment to a Google Career Certificate course of their choice.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “With the digital economy’s potential to add millions of jobs, the government is committed to providing Indians every opportunity to upskill.” He further added that he is delighted to see Google Career Certificates provide training in key digital skills and launch an employer consortium to boost employment in the country.

Google also plans to provide grooming support to learners by offering training in soft and business skills. Learners will receive assistance in building their resumes and interview preparation. Apart from this scholarship program, Google Career Certificate courses are available on Coursera.

Learners can opt for various courses, including IT Support, IT Automation, Project Management, Data Analytics, and UX Design, on Coursera’s online platform. Google has partnered with many industry-leading companies such as Accenture, Wipro, Genpact, Tech Mahindra, Times Internet, and Better.com to provide employment opportunities to learners.
Interested companies can sign up for this program to increase the employer pool further. Last year, Google announced a fund of $10 billion to boost the digitization process in India, which has shown remarkable results. With this new program, Google further strengthens its commitment to transform India’s digital ecosystem.

Latent View Analytics to share IPO allotment Today

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Dipayan Mitra

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November 18, 2021

Predictive analytics and enterprise management service company Latent View Analytics will most likely announce the allotment of its initial public offering today. According to NSE, the IPO worth ₹600 crores received bids of over 5 billion against offered shares of 10 million.

Bidders can view their allotment status by voting on the BSE website or the official website of the IPO registrar. The bidding process started on 10th November and lasted for three consecutive days.

According to the company, 75% of the issued shares have been reserved for qualified institutional buyers, and the rest are for non-institutional investors and retail investors. The shares had a price band of between ₹190-197, said officials of Latent View Analytics.

Stock dealer Pawan Dharnidharka said, “It’s quoting around Rs 300 in the unofficial grey market. The recent bumper listing of Nykaa shows the investor frenzy in IPOs, which can offer good money to investors on listing.”

The Indian artificial intelligence firm Latent View Analytics was founded by Venkat Viswanathan in 2006 and had its global delivery center in Chennai. Deloitte recognized Latent View Analytics as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in India in 2009 and 2010.

The company uses various technologies like high-end analytics and machine learning to develop solutions for businesses operating in different industries like finance, consumer goods, retail, and many more.

In 2021, Latent View Analytics generated revenue of over ₹300 crores and a profit of ₹91 crores. The company also got listed as a Representative Vendor in the “Market Guide for Data and Analytics Service Providers” published by Gartner in 2019.

BigBear.ai Announce Strategic Partnership with Palantir

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Dipayan Mitra

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November 17, 2021

BigBear.ai Palantir Strategic Partnership

Artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions providing company BigBear.ai announces a strategic partnership with data analysis and visualization software developer Palantir.

With this partnership, the companies plan to integrate their products to provide better artificial intelligence-powered solutions in order to provide better advice and actionable insights for complex business decisions. The partnership will also help the companies to increase their respective customer base at a global level.

Palantir’s Foundry platform will be integrated with BigBear.ai’s Observe, Orient, and Dominate products that will provide global data collection, generate insights and deliver anticipatory intelligence. The platform will help businesses and government institutions operating in various industries, including space, logistics, energy, retail, and many others.

Chief Technology Officer of BigBear.ai, Brian Frutchey, said, “We are confident that this partnership will accelerate BigBear.ai’s penetration into high growth markets, including commercial markets and the Federal government, and help us expand our existing customer relationships as well as attract new customers at this critical stage of expansion for BigBear.ai.”

He further added that they are extremely thrilled to collaborate with Palantir to provide better services to their customers at a time when a rise in demand can be witnessed in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions.

The integrated product will help businesses to achieve a higher and faster return on investment. The platform will also come with out-of-the-box features to optimize pricing, asset allocation, inventory, customer targeting, operations management, and many more related tasks.

President of Palantir, Akash Jain, said, “We see immense opportunities to deliver more, faster for customers by partnering with cutting edge companies who can leverage Foundry as Infrastructure in their offerings.” He also mentioned that BigBear.ai’s artificial intelligence capabilities could achieve scalable distribution across various government and commercial customers.

Bokaro Steel Plant Starts trial of AI-powered Predictive Monitoring System

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Dipayan Mitra

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November 17, 2021

Bokaro Steel Plant AI Predictive Monitoring system

The Bokaro Steel Plant, a unit of Steel Authority of India Limited, recently announced that it has started testing its new AI-powered predictive monitoring system. This new development is expected to bring more transparency, productivity, and efficiency in various tasks involved in the steel production process.

Bokaro Steel Plant partnered with Hyderabad-based artificial intelligence company M/S MINTO AI to further enhance its artificial intelligence-powered predictive tool. BSL has installed numerous current-based sensors in various equipment, including the cold screen motor of Sinter Plant, rotation motor for material distribution in the blast furnace, and crane main hoist motors at Hot Strip Mill. The technology works on M/S MINTO AI’s Industrial Internet of Things platform named, Spidersense.

Manikant Dhan, the chief of communications at BSL, said, “A big leap has been achieved by BSL in the strategic direction of digital transformation with the beginning of trials of the Artificial Intelligence-based Predictive Monitoring System at various shops such as blast furnace, sinter plant and hot strip mill.”

He further added that the installed sensors use many technologies, including artificial intelligence, physics, and deep process knowledge, to deliver operational intelligence in steel plants.

The newly deployed technology will help plant engineers and workers to effectively plan maintenance procedures based on predictive monitoring and alerts. Center of Digital Transformation supervised the trial execution of this predictive monitoring system.

Senior manager of Energy Management Department at BSL, Saurabh Singh, said, “The system has started collecting and storing various critical data on cloud which will be modelled under an algorithm for creating alerts and analytics. This will be able to help in machine health monitoring through digital technology.”

AudioCodes Acquires Conversational AI provider Callverso

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Dipayan Mitra

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November 16, 2021

Voice over IP and data networking products developing company AudioCodes acquires conversational AI and speech recognition system developer Callverso in a recent deal. Company officials did not provide any information regarding the valuation of the acquisition deal.

However, it is mentioned that the acquisition transaction will be made in cash and will also have an additional earn-out arrangement based on sales targets over the next three years. With this new development, AudioCodes plan to expand their product portfolio by utilizing Callverso’sCallverso’s expertise to develop new contact center and live CX services like work from home services, click-to-call, and voice channel integration with chatbots.

Callverso’sCallverso’s virtual agent technology has already been deployed in various healthcare institutions with excellent results. The virtual agent automates various critical tasks involved in the healthcare industry, like scheduling medical appointments and bill payments. Callverso’sCallverso’s virtual assistant also successfully attended over 14 million calls in 2020.

CEO and President of AudioCodes, Shabtai Adlersberg, said, “The technology and expertise of Callverso in developing and deploying conversational AI solutions will effectively complement AudioCodes’’ existing Voice.ai offering and be instrumental in modernizing contact center operations.” He further added that this acquisition would help AudioCodes to serve the growing adaptation of conversation AI solutions in contact centers at a global level.

Callverso is an Israel-based information technology company founded by Simon Rapoport in 2008. The company specializes in developing conversational AI and speech recognition applications for various industries.

Director of services and marketing technologies at Clalit, Marko Gabay, said, “We deployed VICA during the early phases of the COVID 19 pandemic to coordinate PCR tests and provide our customers with test results. VICA allowed us to handle the huge increase in calls to our contact center efficiently while reducing our operating costs dramatically.”

He also mentioned that Callverso had been a reliable long-term vendor for Clalit. Callversp’sCallversp’s VICA solution has been deployed in over 1600 Clalit clinics and contact centers for the last eight years.

Paytm Money launches Artificial Intelligence-powered Voice Trading

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Dipayan Mitra

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November 16, 2021

Paytm Money artificial intelligence voice trading

Investment and wealth management business platform Paytm Money launches its new self-developed artificial intelligence-powered voice trading service. The newly launched offering will allow users to buy, sell, monitor, and explore securities using voice commands.

This service makes the process of stock monitoring and investing an easy task for investors as they do not need to spend time typing. The feature is currently available in beta for selected users. The official rollout of the artificial intelligence-powered voice trading feature can be expected soon.

This new development comes after the announcement of Paytm’s IPO to be listed on November 18, 2021. The AI feature uses a neural network and natural language processing to quickly understand the voice commands of users and deliver desired results on screen in a short time.

A company official said, “This service has been launched in line with Paytm Money’s efforts to offer next-gen and AI-driven tech to elevate user experience.” Paytm is currently accelerating its research and development process for various next-generation technologies.

This AI voice trading service is a step forward towards the company’s aim of providing top-notch tech services and features to its customers. Paytm believes that this new AI feature will drastically improve user experience and will bring more convenience to tech-savvy investors.

CEO of Paytm Monet, Varun Sridhar, said, “At Paytm Money, our focus has always been to elevate user experience and be the first to leverage technology to make investing faster, cheaper and easier. With a mobile-first and interconnected world of devices and the much awaited launch of 5G.”

He further mentioned that this new AI-powered feature would help users omit five to six usual tasks involved in trading in a dynamic environment with simple voice commands.

OTP Bank selects SambaNova to build AI Supercomputer

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Dipayan Mitra

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November 15, 2021

One of the leading banking groups, OTP Bank, announces that it has selected AI hardware and integrated systems developing firm SambaNova Systems to build Europe’s fastest artificial intelligence-powered supercomputer.

This strategic partnership aims to develop a multi-track artificial intelligence system and deploy it in commercial banks. The system will be built on SambaNova Data as a Service GPT. OTP Bank has collaborated with the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungry to provide this technology to various public, private sector industries, and higher education institutions.

The technology will offer faster and personalized financial services to over 17 million bank customers using the artificial intelligence-enabled supercomputer. SambaNova will develop the supercomputer in a manner that it can process vast amounts of text data in a very short time.

Head of digital division, and deputy CEO of OTP Bank, Peter Csanyi, said, “This is a unique collaboration between OTP Group, ITM, and SambaNova Systems to provide an incredible resource to the country and the Central and Eastern European region.”

He further added that they are highly pleased to announce this new development. According to him, the new AI-powered supercomputer will represent a unique AI capability to build GPT-3 level language models for languages across CEE. This is a multi-year strategic partnership between the two companies in which SambaNova has agreed to develop a one-of-a-kind Hungarian language model.

SambaNova is a United States-based hardware and software developing firm was founded by Christopher Re, Kunle Olukotun, and Rodrigo Liang in 2017. To date, the company has raised over $1 billion from investors like SoftBank Vision Funds, BlackRock, Intel Capital, Temasek Holdings, and many more.

CEO and Co-founder of SambaNova Systems, Rodrigo Liang, said, “Large language models are quickly becoming the primary interface to the enterprise and AI will drive the transformation of industries.”

He also mentioned that this deployment at OTP Bank would show the entire world the possibilities of artificial intelligence solution implementations in document-heavy industries like banking and finance.

DDN Launches AI Innovation Lab with NVIDIA

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Dipayan Mitra

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November 14, 2021

Data management and storage solutions provider DDN announces the launch of its new artificial intelligence innovation lab in collaboration with computing platform company NVIDIA. The new AI innovation lab will be built in Singapore with the motive of creating innovative AI technologies and accelerating the deployment of artificial intelligence solutions in enterprises.

The innovation lab will offer all the necessary infrastructure to users in order to build, test, and optimize highly scalable artificial intelligence solutions. The laboratory will feature the best available technologies, including computing, networking, and storage systems. It will have a shared parallel architecture for reducing redundancy and boosting reliability.

General Manager of India and South East Asia at DDN, Atul Vidwansa, said, “As a trusted data storage solutions provider, we are excited to collaborate with NVIDIA to deliver Intelligent Infrastructure to enterprises locally to develop, test and deploy rich AI solutions at scale.”

He further added that this new development proves the company’s commitment to enabling customers to build innovative artificial intelligence solutions quickly and reliably.

The artificial intelligence lab will be powered by DDN’s A3I® AI400X™ systems, which would ensure customers get the best possible performance and help them build AI solutions effectively. When coupled with the NVIDIA GDX system, the capabilities, and performance of the AI lab increase exponentially. The technology used in the AI lab is certified by NVIDIA for scalable NVIDIA GDX POD and SuperPOD configurations.

Dennis Ang, from NVIDIA, said, “The AI Innovation Lab will focus on enabling customers to innovate and develop industry-specific AI solutions to help customers and partners to co-create proof of concepts, innovate and test production-ready solutions in the lab.”

He also mentioned that their collaboration with DDN would help organizations access best-in-class computing storage infrastructure that would help in fast-tracking various artificial intelligence and data science initiatives.

Sber reveals its new Supercomputer named Christofari Neo

By

Dipayan Mitra

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November 13, 2021

Sberbank and its cloud service-providing subsidiary SberCloud reveal their new supercomputer named Christofari Neo. It is the company’s second supercomputer that will help in providing enhanced artificial intelligence-powered services like cloud computing and virtual assistance software.

According to company officials, the supercomputer has been named after the bank’s first customer named Nikolai Christofari, who visited the bank 180 years ago. Sber is Russia’s one of the largest banks, but it is now showing more interest in advanced technologies as Sber increases its investments in tech companies and startups.

Chief Technology Officer of Sberbank, David Rafalovsky, said to Reuters, “We are not constrained in terms of ability to invest, in terms of capital. We are investing more now (than a year ago). Our investments in core IT infrastructure and products overall went up.”

According to Sberbank, their involvement in the technology is for tackling the issue of shrinking margins in traditional baking services. Sberbank, along with other Russian companies, including Yandex and Tinkoff, is now creating a new ecosystem of cybersecurity, e-commerce, and cloud services technologies. The companies plan to keep investing more in technology.

“The Christofari Neo supercomputer will enable Sber to bring computing speeds to the next level, unlocking new opportunities for us to implement breakthrough services and products with underlying cutting-edge technology. SberCloud’s current and new customers will have access to the capacities of two supercomputers at once,” said Rafalovsky.

He also mentioned that the new supercomputer is easy to use as it has been integrated with machine learning space and Christofari platforms. Customers will be able to access the performance of Chistofari Neo quicker and easier than ever before.

Exotel acquires Conversational AI platform Cogno AI

By

Dipayan Mitra

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November 12, 2021

Cloud telephony service providing company Exotel acquires conversational AI platform Cogno AI. With this new acquisition, Exotel wants to use the expertise of Congo AI to develop new intelligence omnichannel conversation tools.

Company officials have not provided any information regarding the valuation of this acquisition deal. Exotel understands the demands of the fast-changing customer conversations domain and aims to bring innovations to revolutionize how companies interact with their customers.

Exotel will add co-browsing functionality to its product suite and develop artificial intelligence-powered customer engagement solutions. Earlier, Exotel had acquired Ameyo, and soon after, the new acquisition shows the company’s strong motive of enhancing its technology to develop cutting-edge AI products.

Co-founder and CEO of Exotel, Shivku, said, “Distributed workforce, adoption of digital channels, and conversational AI are clear trends in the customer engagement space. With the acquisition of Cogno AI, Exotel brings conversational AI capabilities to its contact center offering.”

He further added that this new acquisition makes them the industry leader in providing artificial intelligence-enabled customer engagement platforms on a cloud to users across the world. According to company officials, Exotel is currently developing a full-fledged all-in-one customer engagement platform that would eliminate the need for users to deal with multiple vendors.

Cogno AI is a Mumbai-based Communication as a Service (CaaS) providing firm founded by Aman Goel and Harshita Srivastava in 2017. The company specializes in developing various communications tools like chatbots, live agent chat, co-browsing, and video calling.

Co-founder and CEO of Cogno AI, Aman Goel, said, “Working directly with enterprise clients helped us get the right feedback and build a product-market fit for the BFSI space. We see tremendous synergies with Exotel and Ameyo, and through the combination, we can bring a lot of added value to our customers.” Vertices partners and IndigoEdge took care of all the formalities in this acquisition deal.