New tech on the block: Cloud, HealthTech, AgTech, FinTech, Cleantech, GenAI, cybersecurity, logistics

The Tech Panda takes a look at recent tech launches.

Cloud: 2 Gbps Unlicensed Band Radio & Unified Cloud Network Management System

HFCL Limited (HFCL), a technology enterprise and integrated next-gen communications product and solution provider launched India’s first 2 Gbps Unlicensed Band Radio (UBR) and Unified Cloud Network Management System (UcNMS).

The Why

Emerging opportunities in industrial IoT, smart cities and public safety sectors are expected to fuel market demand for 2 Gbps UBRs among Indian enterprises and key global markets. With consumers and enterprises increasingly adopting digital processes, the demand for high-capacity wireless connectivity has been growing exponentially. The market potential for 2 Gbps fixed wireless solution is poised for significant growth fueled by Industrial IoT, smart cities and public safety sectors. Additionally, industries like banking, healthcare, mining, education, hospitality and retail among others are also poised for a revolution in the backdrop of solutions such as these.

Features

UBR

• It is a transformative product, ideal for 5G Radio Access Network backhauling and carrier-grade enterprise last-mile connectivity
• It is indigenously designed and developed with latest semiconductor and software capabilities
• With HFCL’s other wireless networking product line, it can be managed and monitored in real-time using HFCL’s AI-powered Unified Cloud Network Management System (UcNMS)
• 5G wireless backhauling with 2 Gbps UBR will enable HFCL’s customers to save up to 75% on the total cost of ownership (TCO) in comparison with the licensed/traditional backhaul solutions

UcNMS

• The AI-powered UcNMS is designed to control, monitor and manage access points, switches and UBR devices.
• It is a comprehensive, end-to-end solution which also creates customized ecosystem, tailored for seamless third-party integration via Open APIs.
• It offers AI-based predictive analysis that can anticipate problems and suggest troubleshooting steps to avoid network interruptions.
• It facilitates network management and application control, allowing telcos and enterprise customers to seamlessly integrate and adapt to the needs of their customers’ requirements.
• It is highly flexible and scalable, allowing customers to deploy it basis the size and architecture of their network. It offers on-premise, private as well public cloud deployment models.

HealthTech: A solution to transform access & affordability of timely healthcare to remote rural areas

LifeSigns, a health tech company, launched a technology solution, which will transform access and affordability of timely healthcare to India’s most remote rural areas.

Hari Subramanian, Founder & CEO, LifeSigns said, “At LifeSigns, we are driven by the purpose to make patient vital data, timely accessible and affordable and to leverage next-gen technology to address healthcare disparities in underserved regions. People living in rural and remote areas face 2-3 times higher preventable mortality rate than those who live in urban India. Our technology solution is powered by an advanced alert algorithm to function effectively in India’s most remote rural corners, without missing even a single heartbeat of a patient, and this is what makes it unique. We trust that this is another step forward in our mission to ensure equitable healthcare access.”

Features

LifeSigns’ solution for the first time, provides 24×7 real-time, uninterrupted streaming of patient data to doctors and healthcare professionals, whether the patient is at home, in the ambulance or at the hospital. The company will now deploy remote patient monitoring solutions in 1000 rural and tier III cities across India, in the next 1000 days.

AgTech: Unified Portal for Agricultural Statistics

Object Technology Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. (OTSI), a global IT services company, has designed and developed UPAg (Unified Portal for Agricultural Statistics) for India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. This innovative UPAg portal launched in September 2023 represents a significant step toward empowering stakeholders with real-time, reliable, standardized information for more efficient agricultural policies.

“We are happy to associate with the Ministry of Agriculture in this ground-breaking initiative, which addresses complex governance issues in the farming sector. UPAg portal will enhance data accuracy and improve digital data governance in agriculture. It will grant users access to real-time, reliable, and standardized information, and this objective data is expected to pave the way for more responsive and efficient agricultural policies,” said Chandra Talluri, Chief Executive Officer of OTSI.

The Why

Presently, agricultural data in India is scattered across various sources, often presented in diverse formats and units. The UPAg portal aims to rectify this by consolidating data into a standardized format, ensuring easy access and comprehension for users. It will amalgamate real-time information on prices, production, area, yield, and trade from diverse sources, offering a holistic assessment of agricultural commodities.

Features

• The portal has an automated process of generating crop production estimates by triangulating the data from various sources such as IEG, Crop Weather Watch Group, MNCFC, State Government Data, etc. Policymakers use these estimates and other stakeholders to make informed decisions.
• Data hosted on the UPAg portal helps to gain deeper insights into the agricultural trends and resource utilization.
• Data sharing between UPAg and State Governments allows for the generation of more granular level estimates of crop production, which can be used to inform local decision-making.
• Primary data related to crop area, production and yield, and secondary data like prices, market arrivals etc, are collected. Collection and curation of secondary datasets from sources such as government agencies, private organizations, and research institutions improve the accuracy and timeliness of crop production estimates and enable a better understanding of market dynamics.

FinTech: IoT & AI/ML-enabled ATMs

Financial Software & Systems Pvt Ltd (FSS), a provider of payments technology solutions, launched its IoT & AI/ML-enabled ATMs in India.

The Why

ATM operators have long been struggling with thin margins while facing multiple challenges in managing an ATM site, and enabling the ATMs with cutting-edge technologies of IoT (Internet of Things), AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) is expected to resolve 60% of ATM Issues remotely without any manual intervention.

V Balasubramanian, CEO, FSS CashTech, said, “ATMs play a pivotal role in India’s cash-driven economy. However, minimal technological advancements have been made to better the ATM landscape and operators are finding it difficult to keep this business profitable. With this technological initiative, we aim to revitalize the ATM industry in India by optimising ATM operations with tech and automation, resulting in enhanced ATM management, improved efficiency, increased uptime, and better customer experience.”

Features

The present ATM monitoring solutions are not able to identify or predict the point of failure, causing a delay in issue resolution. With this digital transformation, FSS will offer significant efficiency gains in areas of fault prediction, detection, and remote resolution.

Cleantech: An AI-powered platform for ESG ratings

Amidst the global convergence at the 28th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP28) in the UAE, EcoRatings, an AI-powered platform for ESG ratings for products and services, will launch on December 5th, 2023.

Shruti Anand, Co-founder and CGO of EcoRatings, said, “EcoRatings is a powerful tool and stands as the sole global solution for ESG ratings, distinguished by its speed and scalability. It streamlines sustainable decision-making for consumers and businesses and empowers companies to map their scope 3 emissions comprehensively. Leveraging advanced AI-led capabilities, the platform helps businesses navigate their supply chain and make informed decisions by selecting vendors who adhere to sustainable practices. This not only enhances transparency in the supply chain but also aligns businesses with environmentally responsible choices, contributing to their broader sustainability goals.”

Aditi Balbir, Co-Founder and CEO of EcoRatings, added, “The launch of EcoRatings at a global platform like COP28 represents our unwavering commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).  These goals serve as the fundamental pillars of our framework, guiding and shaping our initiatives to ensure that they are innovative and contribute significantly to addressing global challenges. The integration of UNSDGs underscores our holistic approach to ESG ratings, positioning EcoRatings as a catalyst for positive change on a global scale.”

Features

EcoRatings is a revolutionary AI-focused platform designed to empower individuals, businesses, and governments by rating all categories of products and services on the United Nations 17 SDG framework with 200+ sub-indicators. It utilizes a data-driven approach with a big data warehouse and AI model based on the Sustainable Development Goals assessment framework. The ratings are visible to buyers at point-of-sale platforms, providing consumers with immediate visibility into the sustainability of their choices.

The platform relies exclusively on authenticated data sources, employing a comprehensive methodology that combines web scraping, satellite imagery, and third-party verified data, including licenses.

Cloud: New business metrics in Cisco Cloud Observability

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) announced new business metrics in Cisco Cloud Observability. Powered by the Cisco Observability Platform to enhance business context for modern applications running on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This latest release also supports integration with AWS services and application performance monitoring (APM) correlation and provides end-to-end visibility into the performance of cloud native applications.  

For Cisco customers such as Royal Caribbean, these insights are critical. “With Cisco Full-Stack Observability, we’ve gone from reactive to proactive. Cisco Cloud Observability will allow us to visualize and correlate metrics, events, logging, and tracing (MELT) data so we can identify, triage, and troubleshoot problems at an even greater velocity,” said Alice McElroy, Director, IT Operational Excellence, Royal Caribbean. 

“By elevating business metrics to first-class status, similar to other performance-related metrics, we enable organizations to mature their observability practice by empowering technical teams to prioritize technical issues that are aligned with business outcomes,” said Ronak Desai, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Cisco AppDynamics and Full-Stack Observability.

The Why

Traditional application monitoring tools only provide visibility of application and infrastructure performance metrics. This leaves teams – including ITOps, DevOps and SREs – managing modern applications without clear sight into the relationship between application performance and critical business KPIs such as customer conversion rates and real-time impact on business revenue. 

As a result, these teams are unable to make prioritizations based on business impact.?

Cisco’s latest innovations in full-stack observability deliver teams with the?enhanced business context they need to manage modern applications and protect revenue, customer experiences and brand reputation, bridging the gap between business goals and IT.

Features

This new capability empowers users with: 

• Support for multiple business metrics within a business transaction.  
• Easy identification of business transactions configured with business metrics for troubleshooting. 
• User-friendly configuration interface that enables users to preview business transaction attributes for accuracy and set up mission-critical metric alerts.  
• Advanced KPI visualization including baseline performance and a historical analysis trend line, to easily identify when business performance is abnormal.?  
• Data segmentation by selected attribute values for quick visibility of customer segments being affected most.

GenAI: A transformative chatbot

3SC Solutions, a data analytics company, announces the launch of GAURI – a transformative chatbot powered by unparalleled Generative AI capabilities. GAURI marks a monumental shift in risk management within the supply chain industry. Offering comprehensive insights, actionable recommendations, and the capability to respond to any supply chain query, GAURI’s agile interface traverses the complexities of supply chain management with ease.

With GAURI, the supply chain industry gets a dash of proactive risk management intelligence through the catalyst act of GenAI. Mohneesh Saxena, Chief Product Officer of 3SC Solutions, said, “3SC anticipates that GAURI’s launch will redefine the landscape of supply chain management, providing companies with a powerful tool to enhance resilience, optimize performance, and navigate the challenges of modern supply chain dynamics.”

Features

• Comprehensive Risk Management: It integrates with and analyzes clients’ supply chains, identifying potential risks and giving resilient solutions and recommendations.
• Versatile Chatbot Interface: Serving as an encompassing tool, GUARI addresses supply chain inquiries, offers analytics-based insights, and notifies with actionable recommendations to enhance resilience.
• The generative AI chatbot is a high-powered resource that can navigate the intricacies of the supply chain as it offers a versatile solution that goes beyond the traditional paradigms. It can identify potential risks, take mitigative actions, and act as a guide for supply chain inquiries. In addition to this, the chatbot integrates with systems to execute strategies and create a responsive value chain ecosystem. 
• One of the distinctive features of GAURI is its capacity to enable quick responses to supply chain inquiries with suggestive action plans. From analytics-driven insights aiding decision-making to potential risk identification – this dynamic approach makes it an evolutionary tool in the value chain risk management segment.

How It Helps:

• Risk Mitigation Time: It significantly reduces the time taken to identify and address supply chain risks, enabling a swift response mechanism.
• Supply Chain Resilience: It improves overall resilience by using GAURI’s real-time insights and implementing strategies.
• User Engagement and Satisfaction: Improved customer satisfaction through Gauri’s intuitive and personalized interaction with the supply chain management system.
• Actionable Insights Implementation: For better execution, it increases the implementation rate of actionable insights by constantly giving recommendations for swift execution.

Cybersecurity: All-in-one protection for consumers in India

ESET a cybersecurity company, launched its new innovative and streamlined offering for consumers in India. With more than 30 years on the market, ESET has moved to unify its broadly deployed consumer product portfolio. Specifically, ESET is introducing two brand-new customer-centric subscription tiers, namely ESET HOME Security Essential and ESET HOME Security Premium, providing both broad and reliable digital life protection with new features such as Browser Privacy and Security extension.

“Today’s digital landscape has become increasingly sophisticated, with online threats, such as phishing and banking scams, frequently making headlines. At ESET, we are committed to empowering consumers to remain protected online. The new ESET HOME Security is powered by a combination of AI, human insight, and cloud protection, providing all-in-one security solutions that enable our users to safeguard themselves, their families, and their homes from various digital threats. This will enable them to connect, explore, shop, bank, and thrive in the digital space,” said Parvinder Walia, ESET President for Asia Pacific and Japan.

The Why

Responding to the increasing demand for an all-in-one solution that offers intuitive use of these new features, ESET is introducing an improved ESET HOME—a comprehensive security management platform.

Features

• Available across all major operating systems—Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS—and includes visibility into home networks and connected smart devices.
• To meet customers’ needs, ESET has made improvements to ESET HOME. Now, as a complete security management platform, it is a seamless part of the user experience. In this place, managing devices, online purchases, subscription activation and renewal, downloading or upgrading security solutions, and enabling powerful functionalities like Anti-Theft and more, are all a seamless part of existing user flows.
• To enhance user experience and simplify the platform’s management, ESET has made several interface changes, including the introduction of our Overall Protection Status, so users can see the level of protection for their household in one view. This combines both the validity status of a user’s licenses and the security status of devices connected to the account in three categories: Protected, Attention
• ESET HOME is an easy-to-use web portal and mobile app available for both iOS and Android.
• Also introduced with this launch are the new subscription tiers for this new ecosystem—ESET HOME Security Essential and ESET HOME Security Premium. Subscription tiers provide all-in-one protection with low system impact, covering the complex needs of individuals and their households for digital life privacy and security. ESET HOME Security subscriptions are available on all major operating systems, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.
• ESET HOME Security Essential is an entry-level subscription tier with protection features including improved modern endpoint security, multilayered real-time protection, as well as additional tools that further enhance the user’s ability to protect against various threats. Included are the Safe Banking and Browsing feature, designed to protect user’s sensitive data; Network Inspector, a diagnostic tool providing information on the security of the user’s router and display of devices connected to the network; and Parental Control to keep your family safe from inappropriate online content.
• Newly developed browser extensions (compatible with Chrome, Edge, and Firefox) provide enhancement of the browser privacy and security feature. It includes cleanup tool such as browser cleanup, that cleans cookies, history, and much more from the browser regularly or on-demand.
• The middle tier, ESET HOME Security Premium, extends the feature set further by adding other security functionalities such as a Password Manager that protects and stores users’ passwords and personal data. This includes an automatic and accurate form-filling feature, saving their time when filling out web forms.
• Secure Data functionality boosts their privacy and security with powerful encryption of files and removable media, preventing data theft in the event of USB or laptop loss, and ensuring secure collaboration and data sharing. ESET HOME Security Premium offers the ESET LiveGuard tool, cloud-based protection specifically designed to mitigate never-before-seen threats.
• The most advanced subscription tier, ESET HOME Security Ultimate, will be released in Q1 2024 and comes with brand-new ESET features, such as VPN.
• ESET HOME Security seamlessly integrates a suite of standalone device protection solutions tailored to meet customers’ security needs. This includes ESET Antivirus, ESET Mobile Security (EMS), Parental Control, and ESET Smart TV Security.

Upgrade: Liberating customers from legacy data loss prevention (DLP) products

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) announced the general availability of CrowdStrike Falcon® Data Protection, liberating customers from legacy data loss prevention (DLP) products with a modern, frictionless approach to data security that prevents adversary exfiltration and accidental leakage. With this latest offering for the AI-native CrowdStrike Falcon XDR platform, customers can consolidate costly and ineffective DLP point products with CrowdStrike’s single, revolutionary lightweight agent.

“Today’s DLP market is where legacy AV was when we started CrowdStrike: ripe for disruption. With this release, we’re bringing to market the future of data protection as part of a unified platform,” said Raj Rajamani, head of products at CrowdStrike. “We’re proud to have partnered with some of the largest organizations in the world to develop a groundbreaking approach to data protection that enables customers to stop the breach, while consolidating legacy DLP tools. Customers can deploy Falcon Data Protection immediately from their existing agent with near zero configuration requirements.”

The Why

Organizations struggle with legacy DLP solutions that are difficult to deploy, complex to manage and unable to comprehensively track data in the modern cloud and AI era. This results in risky monitor-mode only deployments that fail to stop data theft. CrowdStrike Falcon Data Protection harnesses the CrowdStrike Falcon platform’s industry-leading visibility and protection for the epicenter of productivity and risk – the endpoint – to secure critical data from insider threats and adversaries.

Features

With CrowdStrike Falcon Data Protection, enterprises can now:

• Deploy data protection immediately from their existing Falcon agent to consolidate legacy DLP point products, reduce complexity and gain nearly instant time to value.
• Instantly expand visibility of data flows across the enterprise to rapidly identify and shut down data exfiltration or accidental leakage.
• Accelerate detection and response with a single console and unified workflow that saves security analysts time investigating potential data theft.

Logistics: A groundbreaking solution for effective fleet management

Pidge, a logistics technology company, introduced TRACE, a groundbreaking solution for effective fleet management, providing deep intelligence to all businesses looking to manage on-ground fleets of executives and vehicles. Enabling no-touch management for logistics teams, TRACE offers businesses holistic and real-time intelligence on fleet and vehicle Tracking, effective Routing, real-time Alerts, Customisability, and Exception management (TRACE).

Ratnesh Verma, Founder and CEO of Pidge, emphasised, “Transportation and logistics are crucial to effective businesses – the skeleton on which the supply chain runs. Think of TRACE as the brain that makes this skeleton powerful and robust. Plugging in this fleet management technology and converting raw fleet data to actionable insights helps all stakeholders in the logistics ecosystem.”

“Our ability to deploy and go live within a single day is a crucial component of our larger purpose to deliver accessible and user-friendly logistic technology for all,” stated Rushil Mohan, Co-founder and Chief Product and Technology Officer. He added, “TRACE plays a pivotal role in unlocking significant IoT success and tapping into the maximum data potential while providing deep intelligence for companies.”

The Why

Logistics providers often face issues with multiple fleet tracking tools, which provide limited data visibility, are confined to vendor-locked dashboards, and serve only reactive information. This constraint makes it challenging for teams to make quick decisions. TRACE, being device-agnostic, seamlessly integrates with any fleet tracking tool, including portable devices, mobile applications, and SIM-based tracking.

Features

• Detailed real-time insights, live on-ground events, and immediate alerts enable decentralised teams to promptly resolve exceptions.
• Instantaneous decision-making helps optimise all parts of the supply chain operations, delivering substantial cost savings to businesses and helping to identify missed revenue opportunities.
• With its AI engine and data-sharing capabilities, the platform transforms large volumes of data into business insights. Businesses can monitor all vehicle and environment data, including unpredictable traffic patterns, accidents, vehicle breakdowns, driver idle time, delayed deliveries, and heightened fuel consumption.
• TRACE can give businesses a better competitive advantage by increasing autonomy, decentralised efficiency, and cost-saving transit at the unit level.