New Subsidiary for Etisalat
Etisalat has unveiled “Etisalat Software Solutions” a new subsidiary operation in Bangalore. This is Etisalat’s first foray into R&D in India. The new company will operate under the brand “Technologia,” and will develop software solutions and mobile applications for the telecommunications domain. Technologia’s headquarters were officially inaugurated during a visit to Bangalore by Etisalat’s CEO Mohammad Khalfan Al-Qamzi and a delegation of Etisalat’s most senior executives.
Commenting on the new company Al-Qamzi said: “Etisalat is committed to providing the latest services to help its customers to extend their reach. Through our investment in research and development, we will further our mission and generate a constant stream of new products, services and opportunities to enhance our relationship with our customers. A key objective for Technologia is to form a hub of innovation excellence, to support our growing international portfolio of operators and telecommunications related subsidiaries.”
Based out of a 37,000 sq. ft office in Bangalore and registered as a 100 percent Export Oriented Unit, Technologia is targeted to provide software products and IT services to Etisalat, its subsidiaries and other telecommunications companies in the region. Technologia will focus on Software Products, Custom Software Development and Consultancy. During the initial phase, Technologia will have 50 qualified software engineers, and is expected to grow to reach approximately 250 employees in the coming years.
“The software engineering team is geared to expand as market conditions dictate in order to cater to the demands of various projects and operators. We are constantly striving to adopt new technologies and methodologies to provide the latest return on investment models with great emphasis on quality,” said Feroz Ahamad, CEO, Technologia.
Internationally, Etisalat provides telecommunications services in 16 countries in Africa and Asia and continues to pursue new mobile and fixed line opportunities in many growth markets. Etisalat services over 51m customers. At the end of Etisalat’s 2007 fiscal year, it reported consolidated revenues for the period at AED 21.3 billion, showing an increase of approximately 31 percent, over 2006 figures. Net Profits reached AED 7.2bn, a healthy increase of 25 percent on 2006.
Airlines to Collect Data
According to Travel Impact Newswire India, a Notification amending the Foreigners Order, 1948, in order to implement the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) from April 1, 2008 has been published in the Gazette of India. As per this notification, the country representative/station manager of an airline landing in India must provide information about the passengers on board and crew in electronic form, within fifteen minutes of take off of the aircraft from the port of embarkation outside India, to the immigration authority at the port(s) of landing in India. The details of the passengers including name, gender, date of birth, nationality, passport details etc. are to be provided to the Indian immigration authorities. The Indian government believes that APIS will facilitate expeditious immigration clearance coupled with enhanced security screening of the passengers.
Yahoo! Launches New Lab
Yahoo! Inc. has expanded its India R&D operations with the launch of Yahoo! Labs – Bangalore, its first in India. Dr. Rajeev Rastogi has been appointed as vice president and head of the new lab. Yahoo! Labs – Bangalore will be a center of excellence for next generation search and advertising technologies, focused on making the web more relevant and simple for users and advertisers. As a demonstration of Yahoo!’s commitment to recruiting talent in India, Rastogi was appointed to assemble a team of scientists and engineers to focus on new approaches to information extraction and machine learning, multimedia and query processing.
“Yahoo! Labs – Bangalore intends to build its world-class team, which is focused on delivering the most valuable insights and leading edge technologies to delight all of our customers worldwide,” said Dr. Prabhakar Raghavan, SVP and Head of Yahoo! Research. “Rajeev’s background and expertise in product development, as well as his deep experience in research will strengthen our leadership in international research and technology and leverage knowledge from across the region.”
Prior to joining Yahoo!, Rastogi was the founding director of Bell Labs India. Currently, he sits on the editorial board of Communications for the Association for Computing Machinery (CACM). Rastogi has published over 125 papers on database systems and information storage and management, and holds over 40 patents.
“Yahoo! is focused on pioneering research and technology to delight hundreds of millions of users each day on the Web,” said Rastogi. “I plan to draw on my experiences in the areas of database systems, data mining and network management to help the team tackle some of the toughest problems on the web.”
