New JV between #Johnson Controls and #Hitachi Appliances

Johnson Controls and Hitachi Appliances, Inc. today announced the companies have completed their global joint venture agreement and will immediately commence operations of Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning to provide global customers with a full range of world class air conditioning products and technology.

Through the agreement, Johnson Controls has acquired a 60 percent ownership stake of the new entity, which has more than ¥350 billion in sales annually (approximately $2.8 billion). Hitachi Appliances retains ownership of the remaining 40 percent of the company.

The joint venture has approximately 14,000 employees and 24 global locations dedicated to design, engineering and manufacturing throughout Asia, Europe and Latin America. It will build on both organizations' technology, research and development leadership, as well as expanding marketing channels.

Customers globally will now have the most diverse range of air conditioning products in the industry, including Hitachi’s world-class variable refrigerant flow systems, residential air-conditioning solutions, high-efficiency chillers and leading-edge rotary and scroll compressors – in addition to Johnson Controls’ industry leading HVAC and building automation solutions.
“We are very pleased to start operations and are anxious to serve our customers with an unmatched global network of channels and technology,” said Franz Cerwinka, chief executive officer of the new JV.

Strategic collaborations by SABIC with Indian Partners

SABIC, ranked among the world’s top petrochemical companies has announced strategic collaborations with two of India’s premier government institutions, the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in the presence of the Secretary, Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India and President CIPET Governing Council Mr. Surjit Kumar Chaudhary, Joint Secretary, Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Mr. Avinash Joshi and Joint Secretary, CSIR, Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. G. Anupama. His Excellency, Dr. Saud Mohammed Alsati, Ambassador, Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia.

These partnerships, while paving the way for close collaboration with both the organisations in multiple research areas, are testimony of SABIC’s commitment to partner in the government’s ‘Make in India’ vision by strengthening the chemicals and Plastics industries’ research ecosystem in the country, boosting skills development and contributing to India’s growth story.

Dr. Ernesto Occhiello, Executive Vice President, Technology & Innovation said, “Collaborative projects with well-established scientific organisations and research centres are essential components of SABIC's global research programme. As Government of India’s two top academic and research institutions, both CIPET and CSIR are natural partners for SABIC. Through these partnerships, SABIC will be able to leverage these institutions’ multidisciplinary research capabilities to achieve research excellence for SABIC that will greatly benefit the nation. It is also our desire to see that today’s collaboration will create a value-added ecosystem involving science and technology institutions, talents, industry, customers to benefit the people of India.”

#Dalmia Cement completes acquisition of Bokaro Jaypee Cement plant

Dalmia Cement Bharat Limited (DCBL) today announced the complete acquisition  of its Bokaro cement plant by purchasing 100% of Bokaro Jaypee Cement Limited (BoJCL) for a total enterprise value of Rs.1,150 crore (BoJCL was a 74:26 JV of JAL & SAIL).

Dalmia Cement paid Rs.234.56 crore to Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) for its 26% stake.In March this year, Dalmia Bharat Group had purchased 74 per cent stake from Jaypee Group in this joint venture.

With manufacturing capacity of 2.1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), the plant will cater to Jharkhand, Bengal and Bihar. With this plant, DCBL’s installed cement capacity (including subsidiaries and associates) will reach 24 MTPA by the end of FY15.

Mahendra Singhi, Group CEO, said  that the enterprise valuation for the Bokaro entity was placed at Rs. 1,150 crore.

The Bokaro cement plant will be benchmarked to global thresholds of manufacturing excellence in producing Portland Slag Cement (PSC) under Dalmia Cement brand name.

Amandeep, Business Head and Director, BoJCL added, “Eastern India is a highly promising market with sufficient cement demand. With our state-of-the-art plant at Bokaro, we will ensure seamless cement delivery across Jharkhand, Bengal and Bihar.”

#IREDA, #US Exim Bank sign $1 billion pact for clean energy projects

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd ( IREDA) and US Exim Bank with respect to cooperation on clean energy investment. The MoU was signed by Mr K.S. Popli, Chairman & Managing Director IREDA, and Mr Fred P Hochberg, Chairman and President, Export-Import Bank of the United States here today in the presence of Shri Upendra Tripathi, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE),  and other senior officials from MNRE, IREDA and US-Exim Bank.

This MoU is intended to establish a framework for cooperation in the financing of creditworthy entities for renewable energy projects and to facilitate the export of goods and services of U.S. origin or manufacture in India and various forms of collaboration between the IREDA & US-Exim Bank.
 

#IREDA, #US Exim Bank sign $1 billion pact for clean energy projects pic.twitter.com/PLu8VCkrrP
— Press Release Watch (@PrReleaseWatch) November 18, 2014

US Exim Bank shall provide US $ 1 Billion medium and long-term guaranteed and/or direct dollar loans to finance U.S. technologies, products and services utilized during commercial development activities within the clean energy sector by IREDA. The proposed credit facility carries no specific commitment on the part of IREDA and will depend on the import of US equipment to India and attractiveness of credit facility to the project developers in India. This US Exim Bank facility will be available for financing of imported US equipment, and in addition to financing of 30% of domestic component.


With the above proposed facility, IREDA will be providing a new window of credit facility to developers who would like to avail this facility to meet their specific requirement. The credit facility will be available for a repayment period of 18 years with the same fixed rate of interest. The other detailed terms and conditions shall be decided upon signing of MoU.

In fiscal year 2014, Exim Bank approved $20.5 billion in total authorizations. These authorizations supported an estimated $27.5 billion in U.S. export sales, as well as approximately 164,000 American jobs in communities across the country.

Sakra World Hospital signs MoU with Partners Medical International of #USA

Sakra World Hospital, a joint venture of the Kirloskar group, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, and SECOM of Japan has joined hands with Partners Medical International, the academic arm of Partners HealthCare, one of the leading non-profit health care systems in the USA and associated with Harvard affiliated Hospitals like Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston to bring world-class treatment options for heart patients in India.

Cardiac Surgery and diagnosis is seeing a new age of technological revolution - Dr. Gilbert Mudge
— Sakra World Hospital (@SakraHospital) November 11, 2014

Under this new collaboration,  Sakra World Hospital shall look into widening the possibilities of treatments for End Stage Heart Failure patients in India through exchange of knowledge, experience, expertise, processes, protocols sharing technical knowledge on the subject. It will also enable academic exchange programme between participating institutes and overview of quality systems and JCI guidelines to help in the process of JCI accreditation.

Dr. Gilbert H. Mudge, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Boston & Dr. Raajiv Singhal Group CEO,Sakra World Hospital pic.twitter.com/kUh09wPrEV
— Press Release Watch (@PrReleaseWatch) November 11, 2014

Further Dr. Raajiv Singhal, Group CEO - Sakra World Hospital announced the launch of Heart Failure Clinic at Sakra World Hospital to address the epidemic of heart disease in India “End stage heart failure carries high mortality and morbidity. Patients suffering from end stage heart failure are frequently in and out of hospitals and have very poor quality of life. For these patients all medical options should have already been exhausted barring heart transplant and LVAD (high end devices that support the heart function), both of which are still in infancy stage in India. We are pleased to launch Heart Failure Clinic at Sakra which is our first step towards establishing a Heart Transplant Program”

#L&T Technology Services and Tele2 announce strategic partnership

L&T Technology Services a wholly owned subsidiary of Engineering major, Larsen & Toubro announced today that it has partnered with Europe based telecom operator Tele2 to jointly develop solutions around Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT).

The alliance will help L&T Technology Services’ and Tele2’s customers implement solutions that will reduce their time-to-market.  The concept of connected world is moving beyond cost and time advantage and today it’s about enhanced user experience coupled with the need for driving efficiency in operations as well as the cost of development and operations, it added.

This partnership between L&T Technology Services an engineering services major with its deep domain expertise in the Transportation sector and Tele2, with its proven credentials as the foremost provider of convergent communication services, holds a great potential for the transportation market.   Remote management of engine performance, Data collection and Analytics of vital parameters from Off Highway Vehicles, Engines and Coaches will help OEMs, Operators and Consumers in significantly improving  operational efficiencies, Improving warranty and service management and better the end- user experience.

This partnership will initially target the transportation and commercial, mass transit vertical (which includes Auto, Aero, Rail, Shipping and Off Highway and specialized vehicles) and all associated ancillary and similar industries .
Dr Keshab Panda, Chief Executive, L&T Technology Services commenting on this partnership said, “We are very excited to collaborate with Tele2 on providing IoT/M2M solution to the transportation and mass transit industry that benefit customers. Our engineering prowess and deep infrastructure understanding and expertise coupled with Tele2’s solutions will provide an excellent opportunity to improve customer services and create a safer and more connected customer experience.

#Zensar Technologies and Agile Financial Technologies partner to expand BFSI focused services globally

#Zensar Technologies and Agile Financial Technologies partner to expand BFSI focused services globally pic.twitter.com/brxuumoyKv
— Press Release Watch (@PrReleaseWatch) September 9, 2014

Zensar Technologies, a global software solutions and services provider, today announced a strategic partnership with Agile Financial Technologies (Agile FT), a global leader in the BFSI software solutions space, to strengthen its position in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector.  This partnership will help Zensar and Agile FT optimize proficiency to meet the rapidly growing needs of the sector and continue to remain customer centric by providing them with the industry leading solutions and strong domain expertise. 

#Brigade Group and GIC #Singapore set up Rs.1,500 crores JV

Brigade Group and GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, through its affiliate company, have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly invest up to Rs.1,500 crores in residential developments in select cities of South India. The JV aims to acquire land for residential and mixed-use developments in cities primarily where the secular demand for high quality residential units is high.

#Brigade Group and GIC #Singapore set up Rs.1,500 crores JV pic.twitter.com/UJ17rm6a7M
— Press Release Watch (@PrReleaseWatch) September 2, 2014

According to M R Jaishankar, CMD, Brigade Group, "Brigade Group is happy to extend its association with GIC, a leading global investment organization with strong values and vision that are in sync with ours. Our first joint venture project – Brigade Cosmopolis is a well-conceived, residential community with several amenities coming up at Whitefield, Bangalore that will be home to over 880 families.  It is already under construction and witnessing robust sales. This JV will provide a platform for us to acquire and execute a series of similar projects in South India and further strengthen our partnership”.

Lee Kok Sun, Managing Director and Co-Head, Asia, GIC Real Estate commented, "As a long-term value investor, GIC is a believer in India's growth potential.  We seek partners who share our philosophy and values and have a reputable track record in the markets in which they operate.  We are therefore pleased with the opportunity to partner Brigade, one of the leading developers in South India, in this joint venture”.

India Home Healthcare enters into a strategic partnership with Nationwide

India Home Healthcare in a bid to enhance their quality and to provide an array of additional services joins hands with NationWide, to provide patients with an even wider range of customized Home Health facilities.

Mr. Thiyagarajan, Co-Founder and Managing Director, India Home Healthcare said,” We at India Home Healthcare provide a wide variety of services like Geriatric care, NRI care, Long term care, Palliative care, Post-surgical care and the like. These packages have been designed specially keeping in mind the needs of the patients at home. This tie-up will offer an easy access to home health care services apart from NationWide neighborhood clinics and health centers spread across Bangalore”.

Dr. Santanu Chattopadhyay, Founder & CEO – Nationwide Primary Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd said, “Since its inception in 2010, NationWide has been providing services which cater to the medical needs of entire family. NationWide Home Health Services receives 100+ calls every day and this partnership with Indian Home Health Care (IHHC) will increase coverage to patients more efficiently and effectively across Bangalore”.

Atlas Consolidated enters cable TV market in India

Atlas Consolidated LLC, a joint venture between Greenwich Equity Partners and Jagran Infra-Projects Pvt. Ltd led by Mr. Sanjiv Mohan Gupta have signed an agreement with Mr. Nagesh Chhabria, promoter of Bhima Riddhi Digital Services to create a new Nationwide MSO entity. The New Entity plans to have a Pan India Network with target base of 6million subscribers in the next 18 months.

Mr. Sanjiv Mohan Gupta, Managing Director, Atlas Consolidated LLC said “We plan to be one of the significant players in the TV Cable Industry similar to what we did in the other media Business”

Mr. Suhas Kundapoor Managing Director of Greenwich Equity Group said "We are excited to be in this space at this time and find that there is tremendous potential in this industry".

Mr. Nagesh Chhabria, promoter of the Bhima Riddhi Group and the erstwhile CEO IndusInd Media & Communications has a current base of a million subscribers spread across in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa which will be brought into the new entity initially. His new professional team is geared for an aggressive role out pan India.

Data Security Council of India inks MoU with JGU

Data Security Council of India (DSCI) today announced that it has signed a two-year MoU with the Jindal Global Law school of the O.P Jindal Global University (JGU). Under this agreement both institutions will undertake collaborative research, frame public policy and conduct public advocacy in the areas of cyber laws and data protection.

This strategic alliance will support closer industry-academia interactions through joint research and hosting of national and international conferences on Information Technology law and policy. It also aims to enhance the knowledge of law graduates though professional skill development programs. Accordingly, DSCI will contribute to the development of course materials on cyber security by JGU. In turn, DSCI will draw on the legal expertise of JGU’s faculty members on the areas of IT Law to support it’s ongoing policy initiatives.

Professor C. Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University & Dean, Jindal Global Law School, said, “The institutional collaboration between DSCI and the Jindal Global Law School of O.P. Jindal Global University provides an opportunity to develop research capacities in the areas of information technology and data protection laws. It would be immensely beneficial to both our faculty and students, and would provide our researchers with an opportunity to showcase their research and participate in knowledge creation in the dynamic area of IT law in partnership with Data Security Council of India."

Vinayak Godse-Director, Data Protection, DSCI, said, “Starting with this collaboration, DSCI has taken a structured approach towards enhancing the knowledge of the students on the public policy matters specially by involving the relevant stakeholders and experts. The collaboration will open many new avenues to nurture the talent of the nation. DSCI is taking comprehensive efforts at various levels to enhance the industry’s awareness on cyber security and data protection. To meet this objective, DSCI is poised to engage more entities in future.”

Patni Brothers Announce a Seed Investment in Bombay Shirt Company

Amit Patni and Arihant Patni today announced picking upsignificant stake in Mumbai based, Bombay Shirt Company (BSC)-India’s first online custom shirt brand, for an undisclosed amount. Conceived and based in the heart of Mumbai, BSC prides itself on makingwell designed, made-to-measure shirts that are accessible to virtually anyone with an eye for design and creativity.

This seed investment is the latest undertaking from the sons of Mr. Gajendra Patni, who, since their departure from Patni Computers in 2011, have been known to back young entrepreneurs towards making them established players in their space.
Speaking about the investment in BSC, Mr. Amit Patni says, "With BSC, customers are offered a comprehensive solution that not only allows for their own design elements and fabric, but also one that is 100% custom made to suit their exact measurements. The first shirt I purchased from BSC was enough to convince me about the soundness of the business venture.”

Over the past year and a half, BSC has ramped up from being a purely online player to having several brick and mortar touch points. It provides consumers the perfect blend of classic tailoring and contemporary designs by inviting clients to choose from their ready-to-order range or make their shirt from scratch to create a one-of-a-kind custom piece.

Further commenting on the investment from the Patni brothers, and indicating his plans for the futureMr. Akshay Narvekar – co-founder of Bombay Shirt Company says, “When fund raising, it was important for us to find the right investors who had the experience and passion for scaling a business like ours. Our investors, along with their entire investment ecosystem, bring exactly what we need to the table. We’re excited to work together towards taking BSC to greater heights“

#Blue Star Infotech enhances partnership with Grasp Technologies

Blue Star Infotech, the global software services and solutions provider today announced the broadening of its strategic partnership with Grasp Technologies Inc., a leading provider of custom reporting, data management, and data consolidation solutions. Through this expansion, both organizations will continue to build a 360 degree relationship that will include joint product development, service delivery, go to market and customer engagement.

Blue Star Infotech will offer solutions based on Grasp’s platform and will bolster its implementation services / solutions delivery. Furthermore, a joint go-to-market strategy will complement both Blue Star Infotech and Graph’s plan to cross leverage mutual synergies and address business reporting problems for their customers worldwide.

After Blue Star Infotech’s strategic investment in Activecubes India Pvt. Ltd., a leading provider of Business Intelligence and Analytics Solutions in the last fiscal year, the partnership with Grasp will further enhance its capacity in the analytics sector with diverse world class solutions. Commenting on the occasion, Mr Sanjeev Sethi, President, Blue Star Infotech (America), Inc. said, “We see this association as an opportunity to utilize Grasp’s expertise to expand our prospects and build even more robust solutions. By combining our strengths, we are well suited to handle the increased traction in BI and Analytics across any number of industry verticals. This will further enhance our capabilities and strengthen our foothold in the global analytics market which is growing exponentially.”

As a part of this partnership, the two companies will work together to develop solutions that will address the emerging needs of their customers in the BI and Analytics sector. It will provide a significant potential for both companies to accelerate their growth momentum and strengthen their ability to serve a large base of customers.

“Partners have always been a key part of our growth strategy at Grasp and we are pleased to work more closely with our partners at Blue Star Infotech.  We have found that our companies, teams, and cultures complement each other very well.” said Dave Lukas, Vice President, Grasp Technologies, Inc. "With Blue Star Infotech, we have a strategic partner that brings a lot of experience and knowledge across many different business verticals and is committed to innovation in the same way we are at Grasp. Our partnership provides us with access to their deep knowledge, capacity and delivery excellence in product engineering which will allows us to accelerate solutions delivery while sustaining world class quality and service standards. We also see great opportunity for creating new engagement opportunities and extending the benefits of our expertise in BI and Analytics space to more businesses across the globe. ”

Ajilon Partners with #ITC Infotech

Ajilon, one of Australia’s largest resourcing, business and technology companies, has partnered with ITC Infotech, a global IT services company, to jointly offer Australian clients deep domain and technology expertise coupled with a robust global delivery model in the oil and gas, mining and logistics, public sector, energy and commercial sectors.

Ajilon and ITC Infotech will collaborate to offer a number of business and IT services including Business Analytics, Mobility, Custom Application Development and Application Managed Services, as well as providing Business and IT Services with some of the world’s leading software providers such as SAP and Microsoft.

With over 6000 employees, ITC Infotech combines business consulting, deep technical expertise and offshore delivery capability to provide technology solutions to customers across US, Europe, Middle East and APAC.

The partnership has already secured a new project win due to commence in July.

Managing Director at Ajilon, Ger Doyle, said "We are delighted to commence our strategic offshore contract with ITC Infotech whose expertise and innovation offers our clients best of breed services, scalability, and access to world leading talent.

“We believe Ajilon’s outstanding local capability and delivery pedigree, combined with ITCInfotech’s excellent off shore capability will make an extremely attractive value proposition to the Australian market.We have already won our first client project in association with ITC Infotechand we look forward to delivering world-leading solutions to Australia with our new partner”.

Commenting on the partnership, Ajeeth Jagannath, Senior Vice President – APAC, ITC Infotech said, “We are very excited with this partnership. We see two complementary organizations with similar value systems coming together to provide a rich set of technology service capabilities combined with a global delivery model”.

DirectBuy and eInfochips collaborate on BI Solution

DirectBuy, the largest franchiser of Consumer Buying- Clubs in North Americaand eInfochips, a leading engineering services company announced collaboration for a BI (Business Intelligence) solution that integrates data from warehouse clubs and the DirectBuy ecommerce portal. The solution drives consumer behavior with an enhanced shopping experience, and also enables analytics for data-driven decision making.

“The solution integrates multiple isolated systems to generate tangible and actionable data with BI and analytics.” said Armin Roeseler, the CIO of DirectBuy. “It has improved productivity and decision making with process automation and some very relevant business dashboards.”

The solution deploys the Microsoft® BI Stack with Self Service BI and Power BI to integrate data systems from clubs as well as the website to provide a unified view of the business, and drive consumer behavior for DirectBuy.

Parag Mehta, the Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at eInfochips said, “We are proud to be associated in this business transformation with DirectBuy. The solution will generate insights that are critical for business expansion.”

eInfochips – DirectBuy Collaboration

eInfochips and DirectBuy have partnered to drive Data Analytics and Business Intelligence across membership clubs and eCommerce platforms. In the past, the companies have collaborated for process automation to drive operational efficiency and improve team productivity. This includes test automation with Selenium for their member website, integration ofwarehouse data systems, portal performance improvement, and web-crawling automation to drive operational efficiency and customer experience across platforms.

Jubilant Biosys and Orion Corporation Announces Unique Collaborative Discovery Program in Pain Management Area

Jubilant Biosys, a Bengaluru-based subsidiary of Jubilant Life Sciences, and Orion Corporation (Orion), the largest pharmaceutical company in Finland, today announced a path breaking drug discovery collaboration to discover small molecule inhibitors in neuroscience therapeutic area. The research deal is aimed at developing drug that can benefit large population of people with unmet needs in the pain management area.

As per the terms of agreement, Jubilant’s extensive experience in drug discovery and pre-clinical development will be utilised by Orion to address pain management needs of Central Nervous System (CNS). Jubilant will offer integrated drug discovery services across early discovery, synthetic and medicinal chemistry including scale up and pre-clinical services. The research for the project, which has been initiated, will be undertaken primarily at state-of-the-art R&D labs of Jubilant Biosys (India) and some parts at Jubilant Discovery Center, USA.

Dr. Subir Kumar Basak, President of Jubilant Biosys Ltd., said: “We are excited to partner with Orion to offer integrated drug discovery services. Over the past few years, we have been strengthening our therapeutic area focused discovery platform, and this partnership serves as a validation of our efforts. We are confident of offering successful results to Orion at various stages of research.”

Dr. Jukka Sallinen, Head of CNS Research of Orion Pharma R&D, said; “Jubilant Biosys is widely recognised for its expertise in offering integrated services in Drug Discovery and Development Solutions and for its prodigious capabilities in Pain and Inflammation. With established ability to develop successful drugs, we consider Jubilant as our ideal partner to take forward our strategic business plans with optimum time-to-market and accuracy.”

Jubilant will receive research funding from Orion for delivering Hit, Lead Generation and Optimization milestone, according to a pre-defined research plan.  Under the royalty based alliance, Orion will provide royalty to Jubilant and will retain ownership of the compounds developed under the collaboration with exclusive worldwide rights.

Applied Materials team up with Central Hudson Gas and Electric, SuperPower Inc.

Applied Materials, Inc. today announced that it has completed the assembly of a superconducting fault current limiter (SCFCL) system for installation and on-grid testing at the Knapps Corners substation owned and operated by Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. (Central Hudson)in New York. This SCFCL system, which is scheduled to become operational in May 2014,is designed to help protect Central Hudson’s electricity grid from the potentially devastating effects of electrical faults.

Applied is teaming with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA); Central Hudson, a New York State regulated electric and gas utility; SuperPower Inc., a manufacturer of high-temperature superconducting wire; and Three-C Electrical Co., a utility systems integrator, to complete the utility-scale implementation. System testing and evaluation will be conducted over a period of one year starting in May 2014, and the performance data will be provided to the New York State Public Service Commission.

Fault current mitigation is an increasing area of concern for utilities due to changes in power demand and the proliferation of new distributed generation sources. A fault current is an unintended, excessive current flowing through the electrical system that may be caused by various factors, including lightning or downed or crossed power lines. Fault currents can induce significant stress on critical substation equipment such as power transformers and breakers, resulting in a failure of part of the system and leading to interruption of power delivery. These destructive forces also wear out grid components causing premature failure and need for expensive capital replacements.

The SCFCL system is designed to reduce the first peak of a fault current on a power line, thereby limiting the destructive forces on the power system and improving equipment reliability. In developing its SCFCL technology, Applied utilized its high-voltage engineering experience gained in designing ion implant tools for the semiconductor industry, as well as its expertise in large-equipment systems engineering. Incorporating advanced 2G high-temperature superconducting materials, the SCFCL is designed to add essentially zero impedance during normal operation, to insert impedance in time to reduce the first peak of fault current, and to rapidly recover after a fault for subsequent operation. Depending on the specific system configuration and local operating conditions, the SCFCL has the potential to reduce the magnitude of fault currents by the desired levels, typically 50% or more.

“We anticipate that the successful demonstration of our superconducting fault current limiter in New York will be a significant milestone in showing the potential of this technology for wide-scale adoption by electric utilities globally,” said Om Nalamasu, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, Applied Materials. “Applied’s development of this technology is an example of how the company’s core capabilities can add value in additional market areas. We are grateful to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority for their support, as well as our project team members Central Hudson, Super Power Inc., and Three-C for working closely with Applied to install and demonstrate the superconducting fault current limiter at Central Hudson’s Knapps Corners Substation.”

“We see the application of fault current limiters at our host substation as a great opportunity to test and evaluate this promising technology,” said Paul Haering, Central Hudson’s Vice President of Engineering and System Operations. “The large current experienced during a fault – up to 200 times nominal current level – exerts excessive forces on power grid components and connections. By adding fault current limiters, our goal is to lengthen the service life of equipment and lower system losses, ultimately lowering costs for our electricity customers.”

“As a world leading developer and producer of second-generation high-temperature superconducting wire, Super Power provides a key component of the fault current limiter system,” said Mickey Lavicska, associate director of marketing and sales at Super Power Inc. “During normal operation, the wire in the fault current limiter is cooled to a critical temperature that brings it to the superconducting state where there is no resistance to the flow of the electric current.  When a fault occurs in the line, the wire leaves the superconducting state and immediately becomes resistive, thereby impeding the fault current flow and reducing the electrical current to levels manageable by existing equipment.”

About Applied Materials
Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) is the global leader in providing innovative equipment, services and software to enable the manufacture of advanced semiconductor, flat panel display and solar photovoltaic products. Our technologies help make innovations like smartphones, flat screen TVs and solar panels more affordable and accessible to consumers and businesses around the world. Learn more at www.appliedmaterials.com.

Sashi Reddi invests Rs.16 crores in YuppTV for a 10% stake, joins board

Sashi Reddi invests $2.5 Million (approx. Rs. 16 crores) in Hyderabad and Atlanta based internet TV provider YuppTV for a 10% stake in the company. This values YuppTV at $25 Million (approx. Rs. 160 crores). With access to 170 live Indian TV channels and a large movie library, YuppTV is now the #1 player globally for Indian content delivered over the internet. Over 5 Million visitors view YuppTV every month.

Sashi Reddi will join the board and work closely with founder and CEO of YuppTV, Uday Reddy, in building the company to $100 Million revenue in the next 3 years. YuppTV currently competes with satellite and cable TV operators offering Indian content. Its primary target markets are Indians living in North America, Europe, and Australia. YuppTV clocked revenues of $11 Million (approx. Rs. 70 crores) in 2013. It grew over 100% year-on-year for the last two years.

"I believe that YuppTV is the most dynamic media company to emerge out of India. Under Uday's leadership, it has the potential to revolutionize how Indian content k consumed globally in the next few years," stated Sashi Reddi, founder and managing partner of SRI Capital. "We are on the verge of a revolution in content delivery and YuppTV is at the forefront of that revolution."

"All of us at YuppTV are excited to have a seasoned entrepreneur like Sashi Reddi join us in building our company. This is a clear validation of our business strategy to be the #1 player for Indian content distribution globally," said Uday Reddy, founder and CEO of  YuppTV.

About YuppTV: YuppTV is headquartered in Atlanta, USA with offices in Hyderabad, India. It has around 140 employees. It has content partnerships with almost every W channel in India with rights to all key geographies globally. YuppTV can be accessed through most devices including PC, iPhone, iPad, Android devices, Smart TV's Blue Ray Players and gaming consoles.

About Sashi Reddi : Sashi Reddi sold his software testing company AppLabs to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in 2011 and is an active angel investor in around 15 technology and media start-ups in the US and India. Sashi is the founder and managing partner of SRI Capital, a Rs. 100 crores VC fund in India. He serves on the Wharton Entrepreneurship board as well as on the board of Ben Franklin Technology Partners in Philadelphia.

Groupon (India) inks deal with Magzter

Groupon (India) and the New York based, Magzter have entered into a one of kind partnership to promote digital magazine reading in India. One of the biggest announcements in recent times; this move will enable online shoppers to choose their subscriptions from much loved and fast selling magazine titles at a never before 50% discounted offer.
Groupon will have titles from Magzter that target several key segments including Women, Men, Health, Lifestyle and Travel among others. This remarkable tie-up between the two brings the world’s largest and fastest growing newsstand and multi-platform digital store and the leading brand of discounted offers together for the first time. This association is likely to benefit thousands of digital readers with more than a value for money offer!
Digital content consumption has been on an upswing in the last 5 years globally with India joining the list actively in the last couple of years. Online shopping has reached dizzying heights in the India subcontinent, empowering the Indian consumer to acquire anything he or she wishes; delivered at their door step.  The boom in the online market has undoubtedly played catalyst for newer endeavours online, particularly the consumption of magazines and books, delivered right to ones tab or smartphone by Magzter.
On Groupon, one can avail subscriptions for the digital magazines listed below:
-          Word Wide Media: Filmfare, Femina, Good Homes, Hello India, Grazia, Home& Design Trends, Lonely Planet, BBC Good Food India, BBC Knowledge and BBC Top gear India
-          Outlook Group: Outlook, Outlook Hindi, Outlook Business, Outlook Money, Outlook Traveller, Outlook TravellerLuxe, Outlook Traveller Guide Books
-          Nextgen Publishing: Car India, Bike India, Ideal Home and Popular Science
-          Galatta Cinema, Maxposure: L'Officiel India, FHM, Diabetes Living and Parents India, ModelzView
-          Magna Group – Society, Stardust, Savvy, Star Week India, Society Interiors
All of these magazines will be available on Groupon at an incredible 50% discount (on annual subscriptions).
“We are constantly innovating with our deals and aim to bring the right partners on board, in order to give our consumers the best experiences at competitive prices. Through our collaboration with Magzter, we will offer Groupon users a whopping 50% discount on annual subscriptions of their favourite Bollywood and Lifestyle magazines; from publishers such as the World Wide Media, The Outlook Group and Forbes amongst others. It is an exciting deal and we hope to receive a great response from avid magazine readers.”- Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Groupon India.
“The Indian consumer is a very careful, strategic buyer, who needs to be sure of the value of his/her purchase. To have formed this new association with Groupon, one of India’s largest value for money offer sites, means an impressive opportunity for us to move into an accelerated pace of growth with the exponential addition of a whole lot of new consumers of digital reading. This is in line with our vision of becoming the largest reading destination in the world.” – said Girish Ramdas, Co- Founder and CEO, Magzter.
 “Magzter believes in innovating constantly to reach our desired goal of becoming a first choice for the entire digital reading community. Our partnership with Groupon is a step in the right direction! We look forward to promoting other publishers as well and are certain consumers will be thrilled with the exciting reading content that we have to offer.” – said Vijay Radhakrishnan, Co-Founder and President, Magzter.

Dalmia Cement buys 74% stake in JP Associates' Bokaro cement for Rs. 1,150 crores

Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited, has signed definitive agreements for acquisition of 74% stake in Bokaro Jaypee Cement Limited, at a consideration of INR 1,150 crores on March 24, 2014 subject to various regulatory/contractual clearances and permissions. The consideration for such acquisition shall be subject to the adjustments and various other terms and conditions set out in the definitive agreements. Further the Company has submitted a copy of media release dated March 24, 2014, titled "Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited acquires 74% holding in Bokaro Jaypee Cement Limited (BoJCL)".