Espresso: India Ratings' 2022 forecast, TCS' Google Garages
Your daily dose of news in business and technology
India Ratings cuts GDP growth forecast
India Ratings and Research cut its gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for India to 9.4 percent for financial year 2022 due to slower pace of vaccination in the country.
In June, the credit rating agency had pegged India's GDP growth at 9.6 percent over last year based on the assumption that India has vaccinated its entire adult population by end of 2021. “It is now almost certain that India will not be able to vaccinate its entire adult population by 31 December 2021,” Sunil Kumar Sinha, Principal Economist, India Ratings and Research, said in a statement.
However, faster-than-expected rebound in the industry, pick-up in monsoon, and improved exports growth pushed the estimate to 9.4 percent, which would have otherwise fallen to 9.1 percent, he added.
TCS launches Google Garages for enterprises
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud, by setting up Google Garages at its co-innovation and advanced research centres in Amsterdam, New York and Tokyo.
The experience centres allow companies to evaluate cloud solutions, develop and prototype applications, and apply analytics to address business opportunities. TCS’ portfolio of enterprise solutions across industries will be available on Google Cloud, TCS said in a statement.
Further, TCS and Google Cloud will jointly develop new industry-specific solutions with a focus on delivering digital consumer experiences in retail, modernising manufacturing processes with AI and connected machines, and building multi-cloud platforms for the financial services industry.
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank's CEO resigns
Nitin Chugh resigned as Managing Director and CEO of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank. His term will end on September 30, 2021.
In his letter, he said "he is resigning due to personal reasons and there are no material reasons," the bank said in a regulatory filing. Chugh’s tenure as director, which is linked to his tenure as Managing Director and CEO of the Bank, will also end on September 30.
Chugh joined Ujjain Small Finance Bank in 2019. He worked with HDFC Bank for 18 years, and headed its digital banking function before joining the small finance bank.
Tata Elxsi wins deal in Africa
Tata Elxsi, an engineering design services firm, will develop an integrated cross-platform for linear and digital ad sales workflows for DStv Media Sales, a media buying services company that operates in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.
A part of Africa's leading entertainment company MultiChoice Group, DStv Media Sales (DMS) specialises in advertising on DStv’s digital platforms, linear channels, and paid television service GOtv.
Tata Elxsi's technology platform will support the entire process, from media insights and analytics, campaign design and budget allocation, to campaign management, optimisation, and post-campaign expenditure analysis, according to a press statement.
Government IT spending to grow 8.6 percent
The Indian government’s information technology (IT) spending is projected to be $8.3 billion in 2022, rising 8.6 percent over 2021, according to a forecast by technology advisory Gartner.
India’s government organisations have a low digital majority compared to western countries. “Moving from legacy systems to digital will be a major reason for IT spending growth in 2022,” Gartner said. Except telecom, all segments of IT services including data centers, softwares, devices, services will have increased expenditure.
Intel India partners with IIT Bombay
Intel India launched Plugin Alliance, an industry-technology partnership with Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE)-IIT Bombay, to speed-up digital transformation.
Plugin Alliance aims to advance and scale emerging technology solutions across future technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine vision, augmented reality or virtual reality (AR/VR), robotics, cybersecurity, 5G and Edge.
Samsung partners with NSDC
Samsung will partner with India's National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to launch ‘Samsung DOST’ (Digital & Offline Skills Training), as a part of its corporate social responsibility initiative to train 50,000 youth and job-ready individuals for the electronics retail sector.
The two will launch a pilot with 2,500 participants in the first phase. Children who complete school will be trained at 120 locations in India with paid on-the-job training at Samsung retail outlets.
The participants will be trained at various training centres accredited and approved by NSDC. The training will be in accordance with the National Skill Qualification Framework, and will include skill-sets, such as customer engagement, managing sales counter, handling customer queries, product demonstration and selling skills.
Edited by Kunal Talgeri
