Information Technology ( IT & Software )

Researcher plugs tech hole to fix power load of Western Odisha

A software developed by a faculty member of Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology (SUIIT) has been helping the TP Western Odisha Distribution Limited (TPWODL) to bring down power cuts, fluctuations and manage electricity in Western Odisha efficiently.

Under the Odisha University Innovation and Incentivization Plan (OURIIP)-2020 Scheme by Odisha State Higher Education Council, 34-year-old assistant professor (computer science and engineering) of SUIIT Sibarama Panigrahi has created a load forecasting software for getting two days ahead electricity load trend data for the entire region.

Panigrahi, also an engineer who specialises in machine learning, said the software is assisting TPWODL in knowing how much electricity is required on a daily basis for the region and accordingly, it can either buy or sell excess electricity. According to reports, the region requires at least 1,800 MW of electricity daily which is sourced from Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Ltd.

He added that since the region is an industrial hub with rural and urban consumers, electricity load forecasting for Western Odisha had remained challenging so far. “Traditionally, investigators depended on physical and statistical based forecasting models that used unit consumption and load density from buildings, industries, etc. and geographic distribution of consumers to predict the electricity load. But in the current times as these structures are being changed or upgraded frequently, these models are neither reliable nor efficient,” said Panigrahi who is a BPUT and VSSUT alumni.

Realising the need for a better forecasting model, Panigrahi as a research fellow under the OURIIP scheme proposed the council to work in this direction. He decided to use machine learning (data driven) based models that can approximate any nonlinear function to a desired level of accuracy, for the purpose. Subsequently, TPWODL signed an MoU with the SUIIT in February this year to implement the project that would forecast the next two days of electricity load (with a measuring interval of 15 minutes) for better energy planning.

“After studying the electricity load data of the region for the years 2019, 2020, 2021, we used a model called machine learning stacking regressor that uses algorithms to correlate multiple input variables like weather conditions and data such as meter point loading, to construct a forecast model. We used 192 stacking regressor models (1 model per 15 minutes) to build the software which turned out to be more effective than those used by the discom,” he informed.

Since August this year, TPWODL has been using the software to predict two days ahead electricity needs of the region. As a result, the discom officials said, they are able to maintain a balance between actual power consumption and daily power drawal, reduce deviation of electricity frequency besides, ensure power scheduling.

Currently, Panigrahi and his team are working on further improving the efficiency of the software by considering external factors like holiday effects, temperature and humidity of an area. The team has also been approached by discoms in other regions of Odisha to build a similar software.

newindianexpress.com

Award for understanding of galaxy, statute

14th edition of Infosys Prize awarded to six persons who each will get a gold medal, a citation, and a cash award of $100,000 or its rupee equivalent.

The Infosys Science Foundation on Tuesday announced the winners who include a mathematician tackling challenges in a field sometimes called “the queen of mathematics”, an economist working on governance and accountability, and a law school professor and expert on the Indian Constitution.

The winners are Suman Chakraborty at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, for engineering and computer science; Sudhir Krishnaswamy the vice-chancellor at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, for humanities; Vidita Vaidya at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, for life sciences; Mahesh Kakade at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, for mathematical sciences; Nissim Kanekar at the National Centre for Radio Astronomy, Pune, for physical sciences; and Rohini Pande at Yale University in the US for social sciences, the foundation said.

This is the 14th edition of Infosys Prize. The prize for each category includes a gold medal, a citation, and a cash award of $100,000 or its rupee equivalent.

Chakraborty has studied how fluids behave in tiny channels to design novel medical devices, including low-cost tools, to detect infectious diseases and a hand-held torchlike device for early diagnosis of oral cancer.

The technology has drawn commercial interest within and outside India. Krishnaswamy was awarded the prize for “his insightful understanding of the Indian Constitution, especially his carefully argued account of the importance of the landmark ‘basic structure doctrine’ adopted by the Supreme Court in 1973 that guides and constrains efforts to amend it, while also ensuring its stability in the face of executive and legislative outcomes,” the foundation said.

Vaidya has contributed to understanding the brain mechanisms that underlie mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, including the role of a neurotransmitter called serotonin in causing persistent changes in behaviour induced by early life stress.

The foundation said Kakde has made “outstanding contributions” to algebraic number theory, often called the queen of mathematics that has practical applications in areas such as cryptography or secret communications.

“But I don’t do things with any applications in mind,” Kakde said on Tuesday. His work has yielded proofs for several key conjectures at the heart of modern numbertheory. The conjectures serve as tools to address hard math problems involving so-called polynomial equations.

Kanekar has received the award for his study of star formation in galaxies eight billion years ago and especially for his work on elusive signatures of atomic hydrogen in distant galaxies that has resolved along-standing astronomical puzzle — why have star births in galaxies declined over time?

Pande’s research on governance, accountability, women’s empowerment, the environment, and the role of credit in the lives of the poor “offer major promise and potential for policy design in emerging economies”, the foundation said.

telegraphindia.com

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella receives Padma Bhushan in US

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said it is an honour for him to receive the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award and he looks forward to continuing to work with people across India to help them use technology to achieve more.

Nadella, who plans to visit India next January, formally received the award for distinguished service, from India’s Consul General in San Francisco, Dr T.V Nagendra Prasad, last week.

The 55-year-old CEO of Microsoft was named one of 17 awardees earlier this year. On receiving the award, Nadella said: It’s an honour to receive a Padma Bhushan Award and to be recognised by so many extraordinary people.

“I’m thankful to the President, Prime Minister, and people of India, and look forward to continuing to work with people across India to help them use technology to achieve more.”

During the meeting, Nadella discussed with Prasad the critical role digital technology plays in empowering inclusive growth in India.

The discussion focused on India’s growth trajectory and the country’s potential to be a global political and technology leader, according to Microsoft.

” We are living in a period of historic economic, societal and technological change,” said Nadella following his meeting with Dr Prasad.

” The next decade will be defined by digital technology. Indian industries and organisations of every size are turning to technology to help them do more with less, which will ultimately lead to greater innovation, agility and resilience,” Nadella said.

Hyderabad-born Nadella was named CEO of Microsoft in February 2014.

In June 2021 he was also named the company’s Chairman, an additional role in which he will lead the work to set the agenda for the board.

The Padma Awards are one of the highest civilian honours of India announced annually on the eve of Republic Day.

The Awards are given in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service).

The award seeks to recognise achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved.

The Padma Awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year.

Nadella plans to visit India in January 2023, his first visit to the country in nearly three years, Microsoft said.

nie

Bharti Airtel launches 5G in eight cities, to cover entire country by March 2024

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal on Saturday said Airtel will launch its 5G services in eight cities from today. These cities include Mumbai, Varanasi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

Sunil Bharti Mittal said, Airtel will cover most parts by March 2023 and the entire country by March 2024.

While speaking at the launch of 5G technology in the county at the India Mobile Congress, Mittal said that Airtel would roll out 5G services in most cities by March 2023 and the entire county by March 2023.

“Airtel will deploy 5G services across most cities by March 2023 and across the country by March 2024,” said Mittal.

Mittal further said Airtel started 4G in India, but Mukesh’s (Jio) gave tremendous speed to countrywide 4G proliferation and forced us to run fast to catch up.

Weeks back, in a letter to the customer, CEO of Airtel Gopal Vittal said the telco is expected to cover all of urban India by 2023. “We expect to launch our 5G services within a month.

By December, we should have coverage in the key metros. After that, we will expand rapidly to cover the entire country. We expect to cover all of urban India by the end of 2023,” said Vittal in a letter.

India’s second-largest telco, Airtel spent Rs. 43,040 crores in a 5G spectrum auction to acquire a 19867.8 MHz spectrum in 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz frequency bands.

Unlike its competitor Reliance Jio, Airtel gave a miss to the coveted 700 MHz airwaves, which can provide 6-10 kilometres of signal range with one tower, and forms a good base for 5G.

The country’s largest telco, Reliance Jio will roll out its 5G services in India by Diwali. The company pledged to invest 2 Lakh crore for 5G services. The debt-laden Vodafone Idea Limited is yet to spell its 5G plans.

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India gets its first High Throughput Satellite Broadband Service

The new HTS service will extend broadband connectivity to the most remote locations

Hughes Communications India (HCI), a satellite internet service provider launched India’s first high throughput satellite (HTS) broadband service powered by ISRO satellites on Monday

HTS is a communication satellite that provides more throughput than conventional communication satellites or Fixed Satellite Service. Higher-throughput refers to higher data processing and transfer capacity than conventional satellites, when using the same amount of orbital spectrum.

The new HTS service will extend broadband connectivity to the remotest locations, difficult to reach otherwise, and create economic opportunities to boost the local economy, said Dr. S. Somnath, Secretary, Department of Space, and Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization.

The service will support applications like Wi-Fi hotspots for community internet access, managed SD-WAN solutions, backhaul to extend mobile network reach, and satellite internet for small businesses.

It will also support the high bandwidth requirements of government organisations, financial companies, cellular operators, mining and energy companies, among other businesses, HCI said in a release.

The HTS broadband service from Hughes combines Ku-band capacity from ISRO GSAT-11 and GSAT-29 satellites with Hughes JUPITER Platform ground technology to deliver high-speed broadband.

Apple while launching the iPhone 14 series revealed that their phones will come with satellite connectivity but the feature will be limited to the U.S. and Canada only.

To provide this feature in India, the Cupertino company can partner with satellite internet providers like Hughes.

When Indians call shots in global business

World’s largest coffee chain, Starbucks has appointed Indian origin Laxman Narasimhan as the chief executive officer on August 3. Here are the list of Indians who are heading several global corporations

-Laxman Narasimhan – CEO – Starbucks / Leena Nair – CEO – Chanel / Satya Nadella – CEO – Microsoft / Sundar Pichai – CEO – Google / Arvind Krishna – CEO & Chairman – IBM/ Parag Agrawal- CEO – Twitter / Shantanu Narayan – Chairman, President , CEO – Adobe Inc / …

Reliance Industries to acquire majority stake in U.S. solar digitisation platform SenseHawk for $32 million

SenseHawk is an early-stage California-based developer of software-based management tools for the solar energy generation industry

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said it has signed definitive agreements to acquire a majority stake in SenseHawk Inc. for a total transaction value of $32 million, including funding for future growth, commercial rollout of products, and R&D.

Founded in 2018, SenseHawk is an early-stage California-based developer of software-based management tools for the solar energy generation industry.

With customers throughout the solar asset lifecycle in the US, EMEA, APAC, and SEA, SenseHawk offers a Solar Digitisation Platform (SDP) SaaS for process optimisation, automation, and asset information management.

SenseHawk, along with RIL’s other investments in the new energy sector will be synergistic and create unique solutions with higher value to customers, RIL said in a statement.

Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman, and Managing Director, RIL said, “We are committed to revolutionise the Green Energy sector and has a vision to enable 100 GW of solar energy by 2030.”

“In collaboration with SenseHawk, we will drive down costs, enhance productivity and improve on-time performance to deliver the lowest LCoE for solar projects globally and make solar energy the go-to source of power in lockstep with our vision for solar energy,” he said.

“It is a very exciting technology platform and I am confident that, with RIL’s support, SenseHawk will grow multifold,” he added.

Swarup Mavanoor, CEO and Co-Founder, SenseHawk, “Our team foresees strategic value in working with RIL, as one of the largest global infrastructure corporations, and look forward to this next phase in our growth.”

Rahul Sankhe, President and Co-Founder, SenseHawk said, “We are on a mission to improve the solar energy ecosystem, acquiring 50% of the market by 2025 and with RIL as our partner, we will accelerate on our execution toward that goal.”

The transaction is expected to complete before end 2022.

Indian-origin Twitter VP of engineering departs to join Meta

Sandeep Pandey worked as research scientist at Yahoo, before joining Twitter as staff engineer.

Senior Indian-origin Twitter executive Sandeep Pandey, vice president of engineering, is leaving the Parag Agrawal-led platform after more than a decade to join Meta (formerly Facebook).

According to an Insider report, Pandey, who joined Twitter in 2012, will work on Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning teams.

Pandey led the central machine learning, data science and data platform at Twitter.

Studied at Carnegie Mellon University, he started his career at IBM India Research Lab and Google.

Later, Pandey worked as research scientist at Yahoo, before joining Twitter as staff engineer.

At Twitter, he worked in various capacities, like senior director of engineering, head of revenue science and led the brand and video team, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Twitter has been seeing several high-profile exits after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced a $44 billion takeover, and then terminated it over the actual number of bots on the platform.

These are Katrina Lane, former VP of Twitter service; Ilya Brown, VP of Health; and Max Schmeiser, head of data science.

Agrawal in May fired consumer product leader Kayvon Beykpour and head of revenue product Bruce Falck, saying there is a hiring freeze now and Twitter will also pause spending in most areas.

Twitter recently laid off 30 per cent of employees from its talent acquisition team.

Twitter paused most hiring and backfills, except for business-critical roles as determined by ‘Staff’ members.

nie

India’s first portal on arrested narco offenders gets operational

It is part of the narcotics coordination mechanism (NCORD) portal that was launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on July 30 in Chandigarh

A first-of-its kind database of arrested narcotics offenders has been made operational for use by various central and State prosecution agencies tasked to enforce anti-drugs laws in the country, officials said.

The portal — NIDAAN or the National Integrated Database on Arrested Narco-offenders — has been developed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

It is part of the narcotics coordination mechanism (NCORD) portal that was launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on July 30 in Chandigarh during the national conference on ‘Drug trafficking and national security’.

The NIDAAN platform sources its data from the ICJS (inter-operable criminal justice system) and the e-Prisons (a cloud-based application) repository and it is planned to integrate it in the future with the crime and criminal tracking network system or CCTNS, a senior officer said.

The ICJS, an initiative of the Supreme Court e-committee, was created to enable seamless transfer of data and information among different pillars of the criminal justice system, like courts, police, jails and forensic science laboratories, from one platform.

“NIDAAN is a one-stop solution for all narcotics offenders’ related data and will help investigative agencies as an effective tool to connect the dots while probing narcotics cases,” NCB Director General S.N. Pradhan told PTI.

The idea to create such a portal was to enhance the capability of all the law enforcement agencies working against drug crimes, he said.

NIDAAN hosts data about those accused who have been arrested and jailed for drugs offences and those who are “directly or indirectly involved in the produce, manufacture, possession, selling, purchase, transport, warehousing, usage, consumption, inter-state import and export, import into India, export from India or transhipment of any narcotics or psychotropic substance.”

According to the blueprint prepared for the operation and usage of the portal, any agency can search for the crime history, personal details, fingerprints, court cases and appeals made etc. with regard to a drug offender from any part of the country.

The login ID and password for the portal for use by various central and State anti-drugs units can either be obtained from the CCTNS administrator and those agencies who already have login credentials at the ICJS portal can use the same to operate NIDAAN, a senior officer said.

A distinct feature called ‘criminal network’ on the portal can also be accessed by agencies, as part of which specific links of an accused to other crimes, linked police FIRs and those who visited them in jail can also be accessed, the officer said.

The NIDAAN portal is a vertical envisaged under the NCORD and was mooted during a national meeting on drug issues chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah in December last year in Delhi.

Mr. Shah, during the meeting, had also spoken about various other plans for strengthening the coordination mechanism on narcotics issues like asking all states to create a dedicated anti-narcotics task force (ANTF) which can also function as the NCORD secretariat at the State level, the statement said.

The Minister had also directed the agencies to “take some important measures such as creation of a national NCORD portal (NIDAAN being a part of it), constitution of inter-ministerial standing committees (IMCs) to devise effective policies with regard to dual use prescription drugs and precursors, raising of a national narco-canine pool and establishment of drug de-addiction centres in all prisons of 272 most drugs affected districts etc.”

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hands over several indigenous defence equipment to Indian Army

The equipment/systems have been jointly developed by Indian Army in collaboration with Defence Public Sector Undertakings, Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Industry, a Defence Ministry statement said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on August 16 handed over several indigenously-developed equipment and systems to the Army which includes Future Infantry Soldier as a System (F-INSAS), new generation anti-personnel mine ‘Nipun’, rugged and automatic communication system with enhanced capabilities, upgraded sights system for tanks, advanced thermal imagers and state-of-the art high mobility infantry protected vehicles and assault boats.

The equipment/systems have been jointly developed by Indian Army in collaboration with Defence Public Sector Undertakings, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Industry, a Defence Ministry statement said.

Stating that the infrastructural needs of the armed forces are increasing with constantly-changing times, Mr. Singh called for infrastructural development based on latest technology to help the forces remain prepared to deal with future challenges.

Under the F-INSAS the infantry soldier is being equipped with three primary sub-systems. The first sub-system is the modern state-of-the-art assault rifle along with day and night holographic and reflex sights and the sights are mounted on the weapon and also on helmet to enable a 360-degree visibility and accuracy in operational conditions, the statement explained. “In addition to the primary weapon system, the soldiers will also be kitted with multi-mode hand grenade which has also been procured indigenously along with multi-purpose knife,” it stated.

The second sub-system is protection system through a specially designed helmet and a bullet proof jacket while the third sub system consists of communication and surveillance system.

On the anti-personnel mine, the statement said the Army has been using vintage NMM 14 mines and with the Armament Research and Development Establishment, Pune, and the Indian industry, a new Indian mine named ‘Nipun’ has been developed.

This equipment gives enhanced visibility and range to the commanders of armoured columns. In T-90 tanks the older thermal sights had image intensification systems which had its own limitations and constraints the Ministry said, adding these limitations have been overcome by use of thermal imaging sight produced by India Optel Limited.

Solar Photovoltaic Energy Project

One of the most challenging terrain and operational sectors is the Siachen Glacier and complete power requirement in the area to operate various equipment was met only through captive generator supply, the Ministry said. A solar photo-voltaic plant has been installed to improve the overall energy requirements and also obviate dependence on fossil fuels which was virtually inaugurated by Mr. Singh.