Monorail journey for Mumbaikars is not far away, as the first four-car train set of the Mumbai Monorail Project was successfully tested between Wadala and Bhakti Park on February 18, 2012.

Mumbai Monorail on its trail run from Wadala to Bhakti Park on February 18, 2012

The testing was done by ScomiIndia, the development agency which bagged the contract to develop India’s first 19.54 km Monorail system in Mumbai in partnership with Larsen

Luxury Yacht to be displayed at the Mumbai International Boat Show

There will a display of variety of day boats, speed boats, security boats, personal watercrafts, kayaks, boating accessories, marine engines, marine toys and some of the finest, most luxurious yachts, large boats and sail boats.

The four-day annual leisure boating event has over the years seen a steady increase of international marine exhibitors, enthusiast participations. Touted as

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group will be investing around $50 million to build new facilities in India to manufacture high-voltage products and transformers. The expansion is part of ABB’s strategy to locally develop, manufacture and market products that meet the needs of Indian customers.

Bernhard Jucker, head of ABB’s Power Products division, “This decision supports our in country for country approach and our business philosophy to locate production facilities closer to markets. By expanding our extensive manufacturing footprint in India, we can provide customers with an extended offering as well as deliver fast and cost-effective solutions suited to local needs.”

The facilities will be located in the western state of Gujarat and produce high-voltage gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) and PASS (plug and switch system) hybrid switchgear as well as dry-type and oil immersed distribution transformers. The facilities are expected to be operational by the end of 2012.

The new transformer factory will manufacture vacuum cast coil dry-type transformers and oil immersed distribution transformers. It will help to bridge a gap in the present product offering in India and extend the distribution transformer range up to 10 megavolt amperes (MVA), 33 kilovolts (kV). It will also enable localization of vacuum cast coil dry-type transformers.

ABB has global expertise in the design and manufacture of transformers for special requirements that optimize space and can withstand the most demanding conditions. Dry-type transformers help reduce environmental impact and can be deployed in environmentally challenging conditions.

Microsoft Corp and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) announced today that AICTE is deploying Microsoft Live@edu over the next three months to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India. The cloud deployment will expand students’ access to high-quality technical education and collaboration.

Live@edu is a hosted communication and collaboration service that offers email, Microsoft Office Web Apps, instant messaging and storage to AICTE’s more than 7 million students and nearly 500,000 faculty members, for a total reach of 7.5 million users — roughly double the size of the Los Angeles population — making AICTE Microsoft’s largest cloud customer ever. Live@edu is the first step in AICTE’s deployment of Microsoft cloud computing for education. AICTE also plans to deploy Microsoft Office 365 for education when it becomes available later this year, providing access to Microsoft Exchange Online email and calendar, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and Microsoft Office Professional as the technical infrastructure to support member colleges and institutes.

“Microsoft’s cloud platform will make for a truly progressive ecosystem and contribute to the country’s technical education by providing a better communication and collaboration platform for institutes and students,” said Dr. S. S. Mantha, chairman of AICTE.

Part of India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development, AICTE is the governing body for technical education in India, certifying and managing technical colleges and institutes in a country where the technology industry and higher education are both becoming increasingly vital to the economy. To carry out its charge of evaluating the curriculum and quality of education for all technical institutes across the country, AICTE needed to have consistent and timely communication with these colleges, some of which are located in the remotest districts of India. AICTE and the ministry wanted to deploy a technology system that would provide an efficient platform for students and the institutional framework and would foster efficiency and support broader educational reforms.

AICTE reviewed solutions from a range of vendors, including Microsoft, IBM and Google. One of the major factors in the decision to choose Microsoft’s cloud services for education was Microsoft’s comprehensive commitment to education across all the company’s products and programmes, as well as the system’s seamless interoperation with the entire Microsoft product portfolio. The council was also impressed by Microsoft’s extensive experience in higher education and ability to deploy a system across geographically distributed locations without adding significantly to the institutions’ IT management costs or complexity.

“India is seeing rapid economic activity and growth. Developing India’s youth and their skills is going to play an important role globally in the country’s inclusive growth,” said Anthony Salcito, vice president of Worldwide Education. “The union budget also laid emphasis on skill development and so does the proposed 12th Five Year Plan with a National Policy on Skill development. The PPP model (public-private partnership) is most essential in running and managing training institutions that provide every opportunity to address the skill gap most efficiently. Microsoft’s commitment to empower students by deploying Microsoft Live@edu to 7.5 million students, teachers and university employees across the country with AICTE is commendable and a step toward an informed and developing India. I congratulate both AICTE and Microsoft on this significant milestone.”

“We are delighted with the confidence posed by AICTE in Microsoft,” said Sanket Akerkar, managing director, Microsoft Corp. India Private Ltd. “Microsoft has always seen education as a priority area and believes that technology offers possibilities that can help empower not just teachers and students but collectively India as a nation.”

The implementation is already underway and is being managed by Microsoft and a set of Live@edu partners. Full deployment is expected to be complete by summer 2012.

Live@edu is the leading cloud suite for education, with more than 22 million people using the service worldwide. At 7.5 million users, the AICTE deployment is the largest cloud deployment ever. Other recent Live@edu adoptions include a 700,000 cloud-based collaboration solution for the Kentucky Department of Education. The online service helps educational institutions provide email and enterprise-grade online tools to students and faculty while helping to reduce costs and simplify IT management.

Averaging 1.4 billion treatments annually, the donations build upon companies’ existing medicines donation programmes which already reach millions of people around the world. Today’s announcement comes in conjunction with an NTD collaboration comprised of pharmaceutical companies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US and UKgovernments, international organisations, and endemic countries’ national governments.

At least one billion people worldwide – one person in seven – suffer from NTDs. Each year NTDs disproportionately kill or disable millions of poor people primarily in tropical and subtropical areas.

These donations follow a World Health Organisation (WHO) announcement of new targets for NTDs whose elimination or control is achievable with adequate supply and distribution of the relevant medicines. For maximum impact, these donations focus on those nine NTDs that represent more than 90 percent of the global NTD burden.

“For decades individual pharmaceutical companies have researched, developed, and donated medicines to fight disease and improve patients’ lives,” said Eduardo Pisani, Director-General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA). “Today the research-based pharmaceutical industry jointly pledges a further 14 billion treatments to help end these debilitating diseases. This is our commitment as partners to help end NTDs and improve patient health.”

In addition to medicine donations, the research-based pharmaceutical industry supports the fight against NTDs with capacity-building efforts in developing countries and medical innovation. The research-based pharmaceutical industry was the second largest funder of R&D for neglected diseases in 2010, reaching more than USD 500 million.

The new release extends the reach of the CorvilNet latency management platform into multiple asset classes and departments. A single CorvilNet installation can now serve multiple departments with the relevant analysis and metrics for their business needs.

Executives, trading desks, trade support teams and infrastructure teams will now have one-click access to CorvilNet with real-time and historical views, tailored to their specific requirements. These views also include the option to restrict access to specific order flow. For example, multiple trading desks across asset classes can share a single CorvilNet deployment with the assurance that other trading desks cannot access their order flow analysis.

Donal O’Sullivan, VP Product Management Corvil said, “By replacing several outdated monitoring systems with a single latency management platform, which is flexible enough to meet the needs of the entire organisation, our customers are achieving considerable cost savings.”

One of the users is Deutsche Borse, which is refreshing its global latency monitoring system and adding new capabilities for its recent 10G co-location service with the latest version of the CorvilNet platform.

“CorvilNet provides both our customers and us with a complete and comprehensive latency insight of Deutsche Borse Group‘s markets. With the upgrade to the new CorvilNet system we renew our commitment to offer the best services to our customers,” said Matthias Kluber, Executive Vice President Deutsche Borse, responsible for Networks and Infrastructure.

Other highlights in the release include the CorvilNet Latency Feed; which allows real-time multicast distribution of CorvilNet latency data; distributed multi-hop analysis; time of day alerting and zero traffic alerts, e.g. when market data or trading sessions fail.

The deal brings the total number of commercial IMAX theatres open or contracted to open in India to 13.

The local Indian film market currently ranks number one in the world for attendance and film production with over 1,000 films produced a year and approximately 90 per cent of revenues derived from non-English language movies.  Recent reports project the country’s film industry to grow from $3.2 billion in 2010 to $5 billion by 2014.

“We are pleased to expand our relationship with SPI in India,” said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond.  ”Not only is SPI Cinemas’ commitment to offering cutting-edge entertainment experiences perfectly aligned with the IMAX brand, but this agreement puts us in position to consider the local release of Bollywood films, which will be key to the success and growth of IMAX in this strategically important region of world.”

“SPI is a leading player in the Indian exhibition industry, with multiplexes that have some of the highest attendance rates.  Today’s agreement will bring IMAX theatres into their new multiplexes, which will be located in high-growth areas,” said Don Savant, IMAX’s Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific. “Our unparalleled technology, worldwide brand and exciting film slate coupled with SPI’s state-of-the art multiplexes are sure to thrill audiences across India and we are pleased to join forces with them once again.”

IMAX’s digital projection system delivers The IMAX Experience and helps drive profitability for studios, exhibitors and IMAX theatres by eliminating the need for film prints, increasing program flexibility and ultimately increasing the number of movies shown on IMAX screens.

SPI Cinemas is a leading player in the Indian entertainment industry offering services such as exhibition, distribution and production.  It is also one of the key distributors of films in Tamil Nadu and has forayed into the music business with Think Music to distribute Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam film sound tracks via digital media and Purplenote to distribute non-film contemporary music.

As companies expand internationally, more CEO’s and Corporate Risk Boards seek vulnerability management services to protect their businesses from global threats. Vulnerabilityidentification and management helps companies protect valuable information, including intellectual property, trade secrets and customer data.

TigerSwan’s Vulnerability Management Service, NIFE-VM evaluates both internal and external threats from an asymmetric, holistic approach rather than the traditional linear audit approach. The comprehensive service evaluates company systems across the spectrum of business operations, including computer and enterprise networks, SCADA, social media, human resources, legal policy compliance, executive and employee protection, facility security, and personal electronics and phones.

Its executives have extensive military experience.  As special operations officers, they were involved in defeating major threat networks around the world, such as terrorist organizations, drug cartels, insurgent groups, and international war criminals.

Due to the high demand for these services, TigerSwan and its joint venture partners, Kaizen Technologies and Santa Monica Financial have formed TigerSwan Vulnerability Management Services Private LTD, based in Mumbai. This new Indian registered company offers the full spectrum of vulnerability management services, as well as law enforcement and military training.

TigerSwan is a global leader in vulnerability management, employing more than 350 multi-cultural specialists worldwide with offices in the U.S., Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Japan and India.  Through incorporation of cutting edge technology, techniques, and personnel, TigerSwan provides its clients with a comprehensive approach to combat a wide-range of threats.

Indo Rama Synthetics (India) Limited, the country’s largest dedicated polyester manufacturer and Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), Thailand‘s largest Polyester producer, signed a MoU to construct a world-class, state-of-the-art and integrated facility in India containing PTA (Purified Terephthalic Acid), PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) and PSF (Polyester Staple Fiber) plants on January 25, 2012.

The MoU signed in the presence of Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra during her official visit, is the single largest Thai investment in India.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. O. P. Lohia Chairman & Managing Director, Indo Rama Synthetics (India) Limited said, “The PET and PSF market in India is poised for growth with global consumer goods companies aggressively looking Asian markets for growth. India is currently in short supply and a net importer of PTA. This plant will help us serve our customer locally and expand our markets globally. This plant will be strategic to our company’s growth over the next decade. We will soon identify suitable place and commence operations.”

“India today is a fast-growing market that is demanding attention from the world’s fast moving consumer goods companies, who are our customers. It is imperative that we are there to serve these customers and the emerging local producers who will be consuming more and more PET and PSF over the next decade. We are looking at the long term double digit growth in demand for such products and feel this is the right time to move into the market,”  Aloke Lohia, Group CEO and founder of Indorama Ventures said.

PET is commonly used in food and drinks packaging and is familiar to all as the bottles from which people consumer water and soft drinks. PSF is a polyester alternative to natural fibers and allows the manufacturers of clothing and other soft products to produce low-cost items ideally suited to a large and growing population. PTA is the major raw material used in the production of both PET and PSF.

Each system to be supplied to Indian Coastguard will include: the ARGC-2400, a thermal imager, a radar station and meteorological sensors, all of which will be mounted on lighthouses and towers.

While the radars and thermal imagers will be dedicated to the detection and location of intrusions from the sea, the ARGC-2400 cameras will be used to classify and identify those targets to provide situational awareness and the ability to counter a threat.

Ever since the 2008 Mumbai attack, the Indian Coast Guard’s mandate was to find the best surveillance solution including a camera system operating day and night to identify any suspect vessel at long distances.

The Coast Guard selected BEL to provide such turnkey surveillance solution, which in turn selected an Electro Optic System based on Obzerv ARGC-2400 camera after an international competition lasting many months.

To reach the high level of suitable operational capability, a surveillance system must free operators from major environmental constraints and overcome the limitations of current sensors such has standard CCD, ICCD and thermal imagers.

Among many features, the main advantage of the long-range night vision cameras developed by Obzerv is their capabilities to perform long-range identification using Obzerv’s unique Patent Pending pulse laser source.

Compared to thermal cameras, Obzerv cameras collect the reflection of the laser pulse from the target, which allows any registration mark to be read as well as scene or targets to be observed regardless of their body temperature. A range-gated camera becomes particularly efficient during overcast nights and in degraded weather conditions frequently encountered in coastal surveillance application.

This program is the first phase of the Indian coastal surveillance project designed to cover the entire coast.

“Nowadays, long-range identification of a potential threat is of the utmost importance and the ARGC-2400 is up for the challenge. This contract confirms again the unique capabilities and versatilities of our cameras” Alain Laflamme, Vice-President, Sales & Marketing of Obzerv Technologies said.