Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday invited Japanese businessmen to engage more with India to speed up the investment process in New Delhi.

“I always talk about ‘strong India strong Japan’. On this occasion, I express my gratitude towards Japanese businessmen to show their faith in India. I invite you all to engage with India to speed up investment process there,” Modi said while interacting at the Business Forum Summit here.

Modi, who arrived here on Saturday for his annual bilateral summit with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, said: “Some years ago, I spoke about making a mini-Japan in India. It’s a matter of great happiness for me that today, you are working in an even larger number in India.”

The Indian Prime Minister thanked the Japanese government and companies, saying: “Our Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor project is also moving forward,” because of Japan’s collaboration with India.

He said that under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, India has the potential to become a manufacturing hub.

“I have always kept ease of doing business as my priority. India was at 140th position in the ‘ease of doing business’ ranking of the World Bank when he took over the responsibility of the government in 2014. Now India has reached 100th position and we are working towards better ranking,” Modi added.

This is Modi’s third visit to Japan for the summit and his 12th meeting with Abe since 2014.

San Francisco Sending a strong signal towards dominating the emerging $1 trillion Hybrid Cloud market, tech major IBM has announced to acquire Open Source Solutions leader Red Hat for a massive $34 billion.

The acquisition, IBM’s biggest so far, will provide open approach to Cloud, featuring unprecedented security and portability across multiple clouds, a joint statement said late Sunday.

The deal, once goes through, will make IBM top Hybrid Cloud provider in an emerging $1 trillion growth market.

“The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer. It changes everything about the cloud market,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.

“IBM will become the world’s top hybrid cloud provider, offering companies the only open cloud solution that will unlock the full value of the cloud for their businesses,” she added.

Red Hat will operate as a distinct unit within IBM’s Hybrid Cloud team.

IBM will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Red Hat for $190 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $34 billion.

Most companies today are only 20 per cent along their cloud journey, renting compute power to cut costs.

“The next 80 per cent is about unlocking real business value and driving growth. This is the next chapter of the Cloud. It requires shifting business applications to hybrid cloud, extracting more data and optimising every part of the business, from supply chains to sales,a informed Rometty.

IBM and Red Hat will be positioned to accelerate Hybrid multi-cloud adoption.

“Open source is the default choice for modern IT solutions, and I’m incredibly proud of the role Red Hat has played in making that a reality in the enterprise,” said Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO, Red Hat.

“Joining forces with IBM will provide us with a greater level of scale, resources and capabilities to accelerate the impact of open source as the basis for digital transformation and bring Red Hat to an even wider audience,” he added.

IBM’s and Red Hat’s partnership has spanned 20 years, with IBM serving as an early supporter of Linux, collaborating with Red Hat to help develop and grow enterprise-grade Linux and more recently to bring enterprise Kubernetes and hybrid cloud solutions to customers.

These innovations have become core technologies within IBM’s $19 billion Hybrid Cloud business.

IBM and Red Hat will continue to build and enhance Red Hat partnerships, including those with major cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba and more, in addition to the IBM Cloud.

“IBM is committed to being an authentic multi-cloud provider, and we will prioritise the use of Red Hat technology across multiple clouds” said Arvind Krishna, Senior Vice President, IBM Hybrid Cloud.

The Red Hat acquisition by IBM is the third-biggest in the history of US technology.

The biggest acquisition was the $67 billion merger between Dell and EMC in 2016 and JDS Uniphase’s $41 billion acquisition of optical-component firm SDL in 2000.

Last week, Microsoft closed a $7.5 billion acquisition of the code hosting and collaboration company GitHub.

(IANS)

Mumbai Healthy buying in interest rate sensitive stocks and healthcare sector buoyed the key domestic equity indices to trade on a flat-to-positive note during Monday’s morning trade session.

However, broadly negative Asian stock markets dented investors’ sentiments.

Index-wise, the Sensex opened at 33,549.88 points from its previous close of 33,349.31 points.

Around 9.30 a.m., it traded at 33,370.57 points, up by a little over 21 points or 0.06 per cent.

Similarly, the Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) made marginal gains.

The NSE Nifty50 traded at 10,070.90 points during the morning trade session, up 40.90 points and 0.41 per cent.

(IANS)

Facebook has removed 82 Pages, Groups and accounts for what it calls “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” that originated in Iran and targeted people in the US and Britain.

“While we have found no ties to the Iranian government, we can’t say for sure who is responsible,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook said in a statement on Friday.

The people behind these Pages and accounts represented themselves as US citizens, or in a few cases UK citizens — and they posted about politically charged topics such as race relations, opposition to the US President, and immigration on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook said its threat intelligence team first detected this activity one week ago and conducted an internal investigation.

“Despite attempts to hide their true identities, a manual review of these accounts linked their activity to Iran,” Gleicher said.

The activities on Facebook were revealed just weeks before the midterm election in the US and while a heated Brexit debate continues in Britain.

“Given the elections, we took action as soon as we’d completed our initial investigation and shared the information with US and UK government officials, US law enforcement, Congress, other technology companies and the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab,” Gleicher said.

Facebook said about 1.02 million accounts followed at least one of these Pages, about 25,000 accounts joined at least one of these Groups, and more than 28,000 accounts followed at least one of these Instagram accounts.

This is not the first time Facebook has removed Pages and accounts linked to Iran. In August, the social network removed 600 Pages and accounts originating from Russia and Iran for engaging in “inauthentic behaviour”.

Kerala will need about Rs 31,000 crore for recovery and reconstruction following the century’s worst floods, according to a UN report presented to the Chief Minister by UN Resident Coordinator in India Yuri Afanasiev.

Afanasiev presented the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) report to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on Friday. This is the first time the UN has prepared such a report in India.

The report assessed the damage and loss incurred due to the devastating floods in the state in August. It said the state would need about Rs 31,000 crore for recovery and reconstruction.

The highest amount would be needed for reconstruction of roads and transportation (Rs 10,046 crore), followed by housing (Rs 5,443 crore), agriculture, fisheries and livestock (Rs 4,498 crore), employment and livelihood (Rs 3,896 crore), other infrastructure (Rs 2,446 crore), irrigation (Rs 1,483 crore) and water and sanitation (Rs 1,331 crore).

The report highlighted the international examples and models for building back a better Kerala in 16 sectors.

It suggested that Kerala could become the first green state in the country by building on the four pillars of integrated water resources management; eco-sensitive and risk informed approaches to land use and planning; inclusive and people centred approaches; and by adopting knowledge, innovation and technology.

Chief Minister Vijayan thanked the UN for providing support to the state for flood response and developing the PDNA. He sought UN technical support in developing sectoral recovery plans, bringing international models and new technologies to Kerala and in strengthening the recovery committees with experts.

The Chief Minister sought UN support for mobilizing resources for the state within and outside the country.

Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac thanked the UN for its assistance in mobilizing grants for reconstruction. “This would reduce the amount of borrowing.”

The PDNA is the global methodology developed by the UN, the World Bank and the European Union to assess damage and loss in the wake of disaster and to recommend the recovery needs and strategies.

In all, 76 experts from 10 UN agencies and EU across 13 sectors collaborated to develop the report in 20 days.

The UN agencies included UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO, UN Women, UNFPA, UNEP, WHO, WFP, ILO and FAO and adopted reports of three sectors from World Bank and ADB.

Besides, two experts on integrated water resources management from the Netherlands also provided support.

The report was prepared after visiting 120 villages in 10 districts and interacting with experts, affected people, elected representatives, officials and representatives of civil society organisations.

IANS

Chennai, Oct 25 (IANS) The 220 MW atomic power reactor in Unit 1 at Kaiga in Karnataka set a world record among Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) by running continuously for 895 days, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) has said.

In a statement NPCIL said the Unit 1 in Kaiga stands first among PHWRs and second in terms of all kinds of nuclear reactors in terms of continuous operation.

The indigenous reactor powered by domestic fuel has been operating continuously since May 16, 2016.

It started commercial operation on November 16, 2000.

According to NPCIL, Indian nuclear reactors have demonstrated continuous operation for long periods exceeding a year 28 times so far.

Three reactors – Kaiga Unit 1 (895 days), Unit 3 at Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS – 777 days) and UnitA at RAPS (765 days)- have operated continuously for more than two years, NPCIL said.

IANS

The 30-scrip S&P BSE Sensex on Friday opened in the negative territory taking cues from its Asian peers.

Heavy selling pressure was witnessed in finance, banking and metal counters.

The Sensex of the BSE opened at 33,776.80 from its previous close at 33,690.09 on Wednesday.

At 9.20 a.m., the Sensex traded at 33,553.39 down by 136.70 points or 0.41 per cent.

The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) opened at 10,122.35 after closing at 10,124.90.

The Nifty traded at 10,072 during the morning trade session, down 52.90 points or 0.52 per cent.

Yes Bank lost over six per cent on Friday after the private lender reported a decline of 3.7 per cent in its net profit for the quarter ended September.

IANS

In line with the “Make in India” programme, Swedish communication services giant Ericsson on Thursday commenced the export of 5G-ready telecom equipment from its manufacturing facility in Pune, Maharashtra, to markets in Southeast Asia.

The initial shipments consisting of Ericsson’s 5G-ready radio base stations and microwave equipment for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies have been delivered to Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, the company announced at the India Mobile Congress 2018, here.

Ericsson is looking to add more Southeast Asian markets to its list of countries to which its facility in India exports products from the Ericsson Radio System portfolio.

“Ericsson has been in India for well over 100 years and we were the first company to start manufacturing telecom equipment in the country in 1994. Our state-of-the-art facility will continue to cater to the domestic market even as we commence exports to other markets in Southeast Asia,” Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania and India, said in a statement.

In 2016, Ericsson had set up a manufacturing facility in Chakan, Pune, with an initial investment of $20 million.

This facility has been catering to the domestic demand so far and the company plans to ramp up capacity once the export volumes pick up.

Ericsson also partnered with Bharti Airtel (Airtel) to showcase the power of 5G network by demonstrating Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations.

The use cases leveraged the high bandwidth and the ultra-low latency of the 5G network to showcase mission-critical applications such as disaster response and monitoring, emergency delivery services and remote surveillance made possible through drones, the company said.

“5G networks have the potential to truly transform lives. As part of our endeavour to leverage technology that truly adds value to our lives and the society, we are pleased to demonstrate this powerful use case,” said Randeep Sekhon, CTO – Bharti Airtel, in the statement.

“Large scale deployment of 5G networks over the coming years will open unlimited avenues for innovating use cases that can solve complex problems,” Sekhon noted.

IANS

The Income Tax (I-T) Department said on Thursday it has seized Rs 37 lakh in cash and jewellery worth about Rs 2 crore from Delhi Minister Kailash Gahlot and his family members.

“We have recovered cash worth Rs 37 lakh and jewellery of about Rs 2 crore from the residence and business premises of Gahlot and his family members during the raids conducted in the second week of this month,” Department spokesperson Subhi Ahluwalia told IANS.

However, an I-T official, requesting anonymity, said that additional jewellery worth Rs 28 lakh was also seized from a bank locker in the names of Gahlot and his wife.

The Department had conducted raids at 16 business and residential premises of Gahlot and his family members related to two companies — Brisk Infrastructure and Developer Pvt Ltd and Corporate International Financial Services Pvt Ltd over tax evasion allegations.

The raids too place in Vasant Kunj, Paschim Vihar, Najafgarh and Gurugram.

I-T officials had earlier claimed that it they found documents showing the Delhi Cabinet Minister evaded Rs 120 crore in taxes.

The documents recovered from the Minister’s premises showed office boys, peons and other employees to have been extended loans and to be holding equity worth Rs 70 crore in several “shell” companies.

Gahlot holds the portfolios of Transport, Law, Revenue, Information Technology and Administrative Reforms in the Delhi Cabinet.

IANS

As Kerala continues to seek funds to rebuild the state in the aftermath of the worst disaster it faced in a century, a proposed Rs 80 crore apartment complex for state legislators, has come under fire.

The proposed plan is to demolish an old building in the Legislators Complex located in the heart of the capital city and build a multi-storeyed housing complex in its place.

Senior Congress leader and former Kerala Speaker V.M.Sudheeran said while there was no doubt that legislators should get facilities to improve their efficiency, the timing of going ahead with the multi crore project was “shocking”.

“At the state’s worst ever crisis, after the floods brought in untold miseries and sufferings, the entire efforts and funds should be diverted to rebuild our state, as thousands of people are suffering.

“I will not say this project should be shelved, but it should not happen now,” Sudheeran told the media here.

According to estimates the floods that ravaged the state has caused a destruction of over Rs 40,000 crore and the Pinarayi Vijayan government has given a clarion call to all to contribute one month’s salary for rebuilding operations.

This apartment rebuilding proposal was mooted during the previous Oommen Chandy government, and the Vijayan government has taken it forward.

Academic and former chairman of the Kerala State Finance Commission B.A. Prakash told the media when the state was reeling for want of funds it was not right for an elected government to go ahead with this project at this time.

“In the larger interest of the state, especially when the urgency is to rebuild the state in the aftermath of the floods, the legislators can wait for some time,” said Prakash.

Following the media taking it up, Kerala Assembly Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan has asked the concerned authorities to go slow with the project.