Espresso: Google, FB partner for Apricot subsea system
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Google, Facebook partner for Apricot
Google and Facebook, among a host of companies, will participate in building Apricot, a subsea cable system to improve internet connectivity across the Indian Ocean, by 2024.
Apricot will connect Singapore, Japan, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Indonesia through a 12,000-kilometre subsea cable system, said Bikash Koley, Head of Google Global Networking and Head of Technology and Strategy, Google Cloud for Telecommunications, in a blog post on Monday.
In March, Facebook said it will develop two subsea cable projects: Bifrost and Echo. It partnered with Google on Echo.
Adani Enterprises to buy MBCPN
Adani Enterprises will buy Maharashtra Border Check Post Network (MBCPN), which will give it access to MBCPN’s computerised border checkposts, and exclusive service fee collection rights from commercial vehicles in Maharashtra, the company said in a statement.
Adani Road Transport, Adani’s arm that deals with highway projects in India, will pay Rs 1,680 crore to MBCPN’s parent company Sadbhav Infrastructure Project for an initial stake of 49 percent, which can be extended after approval from authorities.
MBCPN’s turnover in 2020-21 was Rs 192.3 crore. “MBCPN is an important gateway connecting Maharashtra with six neighbouring states, which covers over 20 percent of the commercial road traffic in India,” Adani Enterprises said in the press statement.
Intellect unveils cash management platform
Intellect Design Arena, a company headquartered in Chennai, unveiled a cash management platform, Global Transaction Banking (iGTB), on Monday.
The company, which has a client base of 30 banks in West Asia and North Africa, said iGTB has digital solutions for cash management, payments, account services, self-onboarding, liquidity, and virtual accounts.
Banks can choose from three plans depending on their digital maturity stage, with a pay-as-you-grow pricing model. This will help banks reduce capital expenditure, and stay relevant because the solutions are on the cloud, according to a press statement.
“The time to commercialise is reduced by four or six times, so that banks can go live in weeks rather than months,” said Manish Maakan, CEO of iGTB.
Cloudera releases DataFlow service
Cloudera launched a new service to process hybrid streaming workloads on the Cloudera data platform to help enterprises manage complex flow of data.
With Cloudera DataFlow for the Public Cloud, enterprises can improve the efficiency of streaming data flow, automate and scale the processes. It will also help enterprises cut cloud costs by eliminating infrastructure-sizing assessments, and manage sophisticated data flow, the company said.
Infosys’ TidalScale investment
IT firm Infosys will invest another $0.45 million in TidalScale, a technology startup, taking its total investment to $3.45 million, the company said in an exchange filing on Monday.
Infosys' stake in TidalScale is less than 20 percent. It had invested $1.5 million in 2016 in the San Francisco-based company, and another $1.5 million in the startup that helps enterprises to speed up processes and improve performance with faster servers.
TidalScale has raised around $43 million from investors, including Sapphire Ventures and Bain Capital, according to Crunchbase.
Saudi Aramco to take stake in Reliance
Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s largest oil companies, is in advanced talks to take a stake in Reliance Industries, news outlet Bloomberg reported, citing sources who declined to be identified.
Aramco will buy a stake of about 20 percent in Reliance’s oil and chemical business for $20 billion to $25 billion-worth of its own shares, according to the report.
Reliance has been in talks with the Saudi Arabian public oil and natural gas company for two years. In June 2021, Reliance appointed Aramco Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan to its board.
Edited by Kunal Talgeri