E-Commerce Has Given Book Industry a Boost, Says Amazon India

E-commerce has given the book industry a substantial boost by bringing books closer to readers, said an online retail portal that has been actively reaching out to an audience that demands Hindi translations of popular English books and classical Hindi novels.

"In the last six months, we have more than doubled the number of books we sell through our platform. Our experience has shown that customers keep buying books on our portal owing to vast selection, hundreds of genuine reader reviews and easy delivery at their doorsteps," Samir Kumar, director, category management, AmazonIndia, told IANS in an email interview.

After understanding what the readers want, the online portal realised the challenges regional publishers face in distribution and marketing the books to a larger audience. Hence, to bridge the gap, they decided to broaden their category of books in Hindi and other Indian languages - and the gamble has paid off handsomely.

"Regional books used to face significant challenges in reaching their customers due to the highly fragmented publishing industry and its inability to reach all points of sales even within the states where they are published," Kumar said.

"E-commerce has played a key role in bridging this gap, taking books to their readers irrespective of their location and language. Due to the wide range of languages in India and the high levels of inter-state mobility, several readers were unable to buy books published in their mother tongue or language of their choice," he added, saying they are delivering across 19,000 pincodes in India.

One of the shinning examples of how well this online retail portal is faring comes from the amount of "pre-order" bookings it has managed to seal from publishers who are willing to first sell books by a prominent writers in this virtual space.

The latest example is Amish Tripathi's "Scion of Ikshvaku" which is available for pre-order in both Hindi and English.

"We are very excited at being the partner of choice for several brands who have launched their latest offering exclusively on our marketplace. This response from brands and sellers stands proof of the value that they see in associating with us," said Kumar, adding they have over 24,000 titles available in Hindi.

According to Kumar, around 80 percent of their top 20 bestselling Hindi books are translated versions of books originally written in English.

This contains a mix of international bestselling authors such as Rhonda Byrne and Dale Carnegie, and popular Indian authors such as Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi. Some of the most popular translated Hindi books are the "Shiva Trilogy" (Amish Tripathi), "Rahasya and Jaadu" (Rhonda Byrne), "Lokvyavahar" (Dale Carnegie) and "Chanakya Mantra" (Ashwin Sanghi).

Among popular classics, "Madhushala" by Harivansh Rai Bachchan and books by Premchand and Amrita Pritam also witness a high degree of interest from online shoppers.

"Our vision for India is to build a destination where customers can find, discover and buy anything that they desire online. We endeavour to do build that by giving customers more of what they want vast selection available at competitive prices, fast and reliable delivery, and a trusted and convenient experience," he concluded.

World's largest open source health information technology project tackles Ebola

An accurate, up to the minute, accessible medical record system is fundamental to effective treatment and tracking of the Ebola virus. But how to create this type of system in the rudimentary, overwhelmed Ebola care centers of West Africa where paper records or computers—even if they were available—couldn't be carried in and out of treatment areas?

As Ebola surged in resource-constrained Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea in the fall of 2014, the ingenious concept of a tablet computer usable by individuals in bulky protective gear and encased in polycarbonate enabling simple and repeated disinfection was developed and implemented by Google and Doctors Without Borders teams, solving the hardware part of the problem.

But what software to use on the specialized tablets and on the server where critical information is stored? Enter the OpenMRS community, who drives the world's largest open source project to develop health information technology for resource-constrained environments.

"An effective, longitudinal medical record is an essential requirement for Ebola treatment and these records can't be carried in and out of infected areas. A networked electronic medical record is essential—and OpenMRS offers a cost-effective, well-tested system that has been deployed in multiple sites in dozens of countries in a sustainable way," said OpenMRS co-founder and project leader Paul Biondich, M.D., a Regenstrief Institute investigator and Indiana University School of Medicine associate professor of pediatrics.

"Commercial electronic medical record systems aren't equipped to handle the problems encountered in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. One size doesn't fit all. You need customizable software that can be matched to the task at hand. The OpenMRS platform provides a foundation on which to build an effective system to meet the urgent needs of public health officials as well as the daunting demands of treating and managing large numbers of Ebola patients in primitive conditions."

In October, the OpenMRS community put out the call to action to respond to the outbreak, and volunteers from around the world responded. Several projects were launched to assist organizations providing care on the ground, including the Google-Doctors Without Borders partnership. Their engineers, working with OpenMRS volunteers around the world, customized the functionality and user interface of OpenMRS to be used on these specialized tablets.

The solutions developed for the projects included standardized terminology related to Ebola, order entry for medications and intravenous fluids, lab test ordering and reporting, tracking lab samples from the community and alerting clinicians to the results, and observations of intensive care management, as well as tools for contact tracing and community outreach.

"OpenMRS, which is a free and open source software project focused on building an electronic medical record platform, is powered by individuals and organizations with a wide variety of user experiences. This collaborative community reduces barriers so people can innovate and build on the OpenMRS platform in ways that are sensitive to a specific environment. This is exactly what they did for those working within the unbelievable constraints of treating Ebola in West Africa," said Dr. Biondich.

Building Digital India from the grassroots

In 1965, Gordon Moore made a prediction that would set the pace for our modern digital revolution. From careful observation of an emerging trend, Moore extrapolated that computing would dramatically increase in power, and decrease in relative cost, at an exponential pace.

By Sudhir Chowdhary

The insight, known as Moore’s Law, became the golden rule for the electronics industry, and a springboard for innovation. As a co-founder, Gordon paved the path for Intel to make the ever faster, smaller, more affordable transistors that drive our modern tools and toys.

Cut to present. Intel recently celebrated 50 years of Moore’s Law. It remains Intel’s driving force that will enable an emerging generation of inventors, entrepreneurs and leaders to reimagine the future. Moore’s Law doesn’t just drive technological change; it also creates huge economic value and drives social advancement. In sync with this sentiment, Intel and the department of science and technology (DST) have launched a unique ‘Innovate for Digital India’ Challenge, which will focus on the creation of products to increase technology adoption in India that will eventually result in the creation of a local technology system.

“Innovation is part of Intel’s DNA,” said Debjani Ghosh, vice-president, Sales and Marketing Group and managing director, Intel South Asia. “The Intel-DST platform will combine Intel’s history of game-changing innovation and world-class technology with the government’s bold Digital India vision and the immense entrepreneurship talent in the country to create a sustainable tech ecosystem that is innovating for India. Through this challenge, we aim to bring to market tangible products and solutions that will help make Digital India a reality.”

Without doubt, the time is ripe for a Digital India. But to make meaningful progress, the only option is to penetrate urban as well as rural India with innovative solutions at low cost. And, this is precisely for what the Intel-DST platform has been put into place. Intel officials informed that the new initiative will be open to aspiring and existing entrepreneurs, innovators, academia, designers, engineers and makers from diverse backgrounds.

Participants will be provided mentoring by industry stalwarts and Intel experts, assistance in terms of technical know-how, access to product kits and infrastructure, and commercialisation opportunities. They will also be provided market linkages and access to funds at various stages to help make their ideas into a reality.

Total grants are worth R1.5 crore; top three teams will get access to seed fund of R20 lakh each. “With this challenge, we expect to see breakthrough ideas and indigenous innovations that will solve some of India’s key challenges,” said RS Sharma, secretary, department of electronics and IT.

The Innovate for Digital India Challenge, running from April 2015 to January 2016, has been designed with DST, with support from the department of electronics and information technology, MyGov.in and will be managed by IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship.

The initiative aims to encourage the creation of intuitive, easy-to-use solutions that can increase access to critical services imperative for development. Eventually the best ideas will get help for commercialisation leading to the creation of a local technology ecosystem furthering the government’s Make in India vision.

The challenge will focus on innovation in two broad areas. The first is innovation to create the ideal citizen’s device platform, including biometric sensing capabilities, peripherals using other sensors, intuitive user interface, gesture recognition, multi-lingual support and voice support. The second area is innovation to deliver eKranti/MyGov application to accelerate delivery of e-governance services on a mobile platform.

Intel has been fostering innovation for more than two decades in India from school level to higher education, including Ph.D Fellowships. More than 180 Indian school students have participated in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair to date, with 18 Indian winners, who have minor planets named after them. The Intel Higher Education Programme bridges the gap between academia and industry standards to promote innovation and entrepreneurship and has reached more than 235,000 students and 4,500 faculty members across 550 institutions to date.

Last year, Intel India announced the Intel Ph.D Sponsorship Programme to boost quality research and enhance Ph.D programmes across the country.

Indian IT in FY15: What went wrong with TCS, Wipro & others as they struggled to grow revenues?

MUMBAI|BENGALURU: Natarajan Chandrasekaran is usually an epitome of quiet confidence and steely resolve.

But on April 16, for the first time in years, the 51-year-old chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services was at a loss to explain India's largest software firm's quarterly performance and was unusually defensive while taking questions from journalists.

Chandrasekaran's tone was reflective of the broader mood of India's $146-billion information technology industry, which en .. 

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47063729.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

M.Tech. (Sponsored) Admission at NIT, Goa

Goa: Applications are invited by The Assistant Registrar, National Institute of Technology, Goa for admission into M.Tech. (Sponsored) Programmes in the following Departments for the academic year 2015-16

Computer Science and Engineering (CSE)

Computer Science and Engineering

Electronic and Communication Engineering (ECE)

VLSI

Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE)

Power Electronics and Power System

Eligibilities:

Bachelor's degree in {Engineering /Technology or equivalent in an appropriate area with at least 60% marks or 6.5 in CGPA on a 10 point scale.

Reservation for OBC/SC/ST/PH candidates as per Govt, of India norms. Applicants claiming reservation under OBC/SC/ST/PH are required to produce a valid certificate as in the Govt, prescribed format. The certificate should have been issued on or after 01.01.2015.

Applicants from Academic Institutions/Industries/Research Organizations etc. arc only need to apply in this category. They must have a minimum two-year full time continuous service in the sponsoring organization. They have to attach duly completed Form-I (Sponsorship and NOC) along with the application. They arc advised to come with experience certificate and other relevant documents such as pay-slip. appointment order and Identity card with which they can convince the selection committee about their length of service in the sponsoring organization.

The percentage of marks requirement for sponsored candidates may be relaxed up to 55% or 6.0 CGPA if documentary evidence of proven research and professional experience (publications, unpublished works) in the appropriate field arc submitted.

How to Apply:

Downloadable application form with other relevant papers is available in the website: 

http://www.new.nitgoa.ac.in/uploaded_files/MTech_Application_form_24april2015.pdf

The filled in application form must be accompanied with an Application Fee of Rs.500/- (for General/OBC) OR Rs. 300/- (for SC/ST) in the form of crossed Demand Draft in favour of "Director NIT Goa", payable at Ponda, Goa, otherwise, the application form will not be considered.

Filled in application should reach The Assistant Registrar. National Institute of Technology Goa, Farmagudi, Ponda, Goa 403 401 on or before 30.05.2015.

Important Dates:

Last date of receipt of duly filled in application form at NIT Goa 30.05.2015

Date of interview at NIT Goa To be announced

Date of announcement of results To be announced

Starting of classes 27.07.2015