Reliance Mobile has tied-up with Aaj Tak to launch MMS News Subscription Service to its subscribers. According to this tie-up, a Reliance user will be able to access news related to National, International, Business, Sports, Entertainment happenings on their handset. The news alerts will be in video format sent to the subscriber as MMS clips. Reliance Mobile will send these MMS alerts twice everyday. Reliance Mobile is offering the Aaj Tak MMS News Alert service on a 30-day subscription module. Customers wishing to avail the service can subscribe to it for Rs 30/month. Reliance Mobile is offering this service to both its prepaid as well as post-paid customers across both CDMA and GSM networks. Commenting on the new service, Mr Krishna Durba, Head – VAS, Reliance Communications said, “We have seen large demand for news on the move. Subscribers want to be alerted on the breaking news. This service will ensure excellent news coverage with multimedia pictures & video clips. ” In case of Post-paid Users, the subscription charges will be added to mobile user’s monthly bills. For Prepaid Users, the subscription charges will be deducted immediately. Reliance customers can subscribe to this service by sending a SMS “MSub N” to 52424.

Edcomm Banker’s Academy has announced plans to release a new and improved version of its flagship compliance training program this summer. The redesign includes an improved user interface, new look and feel as well as a complete update of all content. The new Focus on Compliance is part of Edcomm Banker’s Academy’s ongoing commitment to providing the most comprehensive and current compliance training to Banks, Credit Unions and Money Services Businesses (MSBs).

The redesigned Focus on Compliance features a new color scheme with enhanced graphics, sound and more interactive activities designed to help motivate students while increasing comprehension and retention of key learning points. This is especially important for compliance training because the requirement for ongoing recertification means that students need to take modules of the program each year.

Focus on Compliance, from Edcomm Banker’s Academy, is a computer-based, distance-learning program that can be delivered via Internet, Intranet or CD. The program teaches banking compliance using easy-to-understand language in an interactive, self-paced format. Focus on Compliance covers: Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti Money Laundering (AML), USA PATRIOT Act, OFAC, Privacy, Reg P, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Right to Financial Privacy, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Reg CC & Check 21, Reg D, Reg E, Reg Z, Truth in Lending, FCRA, FACT Act, HMDA, CRA and Bank Bribery, among others. The program also includes a quick reference guide to all banking regulations, a glossary of terms and a searchable library of reference materials.

WIPRO TECHNOLOGIES, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) on May 19, 2009, announced the launch of hosted document management (HDM) solution – a cost effective enterprise document management offering based on the software as a service (SaaS) model. The solution was developed as a part of the strategic alliance between Wipro and EMC Corporation and leverages EMC Documentum Enterprise Content Management 6.5 – helping enterprises address the need for robust and scalable enterprise content management (ECM) solutions and to manage the increasing demand for transactional content and business process efficiencies. The solution is being launched at EMC World, 2009, EMC’s international customer conference, being held at Orlando, May 18 to 21, 2009.

Wipro and EMC announced the strategic alliance in 2007 and have jointly developed innovative solutions that address unique customer requirements across geographies. With the HDM model, Wipro and EMC will provide end-to-end document management services resulting in reduced costs and complexity for the clients. Utilising EMC Documentum enterprise content management technology, HDM is built on Wipro’s SaaS platform and provides a scalable solution that simplifies the time-intensive act of data capture, management, retrieval and archival of business critical documents to make better use of valuable information assets.

The solution offers high scalability and flexibility and helps accelerate time- to-market by boarding new customers/processes in four to six weeks time. It allows customers to eliminate initial capital expenditure and reduce cost by over 30 per cent depending on customer requirements.

“HDM automates business processes and management of transactional content without having to worry about infrastructure, labour and time to market,” said Jayakrishnan Sasidharan, vice-president, portals and content management, Wipro Technologies. “This results in substantial cost savings for the clients and helps address their specific ECM need of managing transactional content and enhancing business process efficiency,” he added. The HDM solution can be configured to address the content management requirements of wide range of industries and business processes, including financial services, human resources, procurement, legal, manufacturing and real estate applications.

“When we first announced EMC Documentum ECM 6.5, EMC truly raised the bar for the next-generation of enterprise content management – allowing IT to address today’s exploding content requirements while enhancing enterprise performance, security and compliance,” said Marc Burckin, vice president Alliances, Content Management and Archiving Division at EMC. “Wipro is leveraging the feedback from customers to deliver a cost-effective document management solution that provides return on investment within six months. This offering will help large organisations realise the benefits of an innovative hosted document management solution that can significantly improve the efficiency of their document intensive business process. “EMC world attendees are invited to experience hosted document management solution first hand at the Wipro Technologies booth, 246.

The summer college internship program at Three Stars Inc. kicked off Wednesday, May 20, 2009 as several students reported for orientation and training. The program has been specifically designed to complement its participants’ education with the workplace knowledge and skills necessary to land a quality job after graduation.

“Everyone was on time and eager to start, which is a great sign for what’s to come from these folks,” program director Keith Kress said. “We’re expecting great things from this bunch of kids.”

Even before the economy contracted – making it more difficult for college grads to secure employment in their field – companies have been asking more and more of their applicants; and several years of internship experience give grads that extra edge to land the job over the graduates without any internships.

“One of the things we look for when we’re hiring kids right out of college is work experience above and beyond class work,” Mr. Kress said. “Just showing up to class and taking tests doesn’t show the initiative that we’re looking for. We want people who spent their free time putting in the extra effort working an internship. It just made sense that if we expect that, we should offer a program that would give kids those types of opportunities.”

Three Stars Inc. offers students experience in all aspects of a marketing and advertising company from administrative duties to creative input into programs and campaigns. The entire process of developing a successful marketing strategy as well as the nuts and bolts of operating the company is available to the interns to learn how all of the knowledge they’ve acquired in school relates to the real business world.

“When these kids leave our program, they’ll be ready to work in any capacity at any marketing company in the country. And if they decide to apply here for a permanent position, they’ll certainly be on top of the short list,” Mr. Kress concluded.

As part of its commitment to offer great entertainment to its subscribers, BIG TV DTH has lined up an enthralling showcasing of the recently released hilarious mockumentary, “The President Is Coming” with Konkona Sen Sharma in the lead and the Anil Kumble & Mandira Bedi starrer, “Meerabai Not Out” starting from January 25^th for an entire month. Both these films will make their debut on the DTH medium as Pay-per-View films.

“The President Is Coming” and “Meerabai Not Out” will be shown in multiple shows throughout the day on dedicated channels and BIG TV subscribers will have to pay a sum of Rs. 100/- and Rs. 75/- respectively to view the film. BIG TV has a special “COMBO OFFER” of Rs. 150/- in which viewers will be able to view both the films. The subscription will give them access to watch both the movies from the time they pay, till mid-night of the same day.

“The President Is Coming”, is the story of six “Young Indians” slugging it out to be the chosen one to shake hands with the President of the USA. The six ‘Young Indians” comprise of an entrepreneur Archana, a social worker Ajay, a Accent Trainer Rohit, a stock broker Deepak, a novelist Maya and a IT geek Ramesh and the task of selecting the one “Young Indian” is on two PR professionals Samantha and Ritu.

The film is all about the one night these six spend in the US Consulate under the watchful eyes of Samantha and Ritu who put them through rounds of tests to find the final winner with each of the six are upto their own tricks to eliminate the others.

“Meerabai Not Out” is Meera Achrekar (Mandira), a 32-year-old mathematics teacher, her passion for cricket and her undying love for the Indian cricket team and, specifically, spinner Anil Kumble who makes his Bollywood debut with this films. Anil Kumble plays himself in the film.

Meera, hugely popular among her students because of her passion for cricket, even bunks classes and fights for season tickets for every cricket match played at Wankhede stadium. However, the twist comes when, love suddenly blossoms in her life with heart-specialist Arjun Sachdeva (Eijaz Khan) and she realises that perhaps there is more to life than praying for Team India and Anil Kumble.

Reliance Communications, India’s largest and only telecom service provider to offer nationwide GSM and CDMA services today introduced “Singapore – Malaysia Calling Card” for the benefit of customers calling South East Asian countries including Thailand, Indonesia and Hongkong besides Singapore and Malaysia. This exclusive calling card priced at Rs. 449 enables a customer to call at 30% lower rate of  Rs 3.50/minute.  The Singapore – Malaysia card offering about 116 minutes of talktime is available through e-recharge and valid till the end of June 2009.  This offer is applicable to both GSM & CDMA customers in Karnataka.

The launch of Singapore – Malaysia card further strengthens the wide bouquet of Reliance International Calling Card portfolio. This includes the recent announcement of US-Canada & Gulf calling cards besides the exclusive calling cards to SAARC, Europe and Australia. The extremely attractive tariff and its positioning for the S.E. Asian market is designed especially for Reliance Mobile subscribers in Karnataka.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation bagged the CNBC India Business Leader Awards in the “SOCIAL ENTERPRISE OF THE YEAR CATEGORY” that were conferred in Mumbai on January 22^nd, 2009.

The awards were adjudged by a jury of luminaries consisting of Mr. Mukesh Ambani, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Mr. Deepak Parekh, Mr. R. Seshasayee, Mr. Jagdish Khattar and Mr. Raghav Bahl. The event brought together the most revered names in India’s political, economic and social circles.

Akshaya Patra has won accolades from all corners for its yeomen work for the mid-day meal program in India and their astounding performance in feeding nearly one million (ten lakh) school children every day.

Dignitaries who were present for the award ceremony included Ashok Chavan, Chief Minister, Maharashtra, Narendra Modi, Chief Minister, Gujarat, Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce and Industries, Aamir Khan, Atul Punj, S. Ramadorai, Uday Kotak, Ajay Piramal, Naresh Goyal, Chitra Ramakrishnan, Anand G. Mahindra, Sumit Bannerjee, Swati Piramal and Nita Ambani.

Shri. Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, received the award and said, “This award is actually a recognition of thousands of supporters from the corporate world, professional governance provided by my co-trustees, board of advisors, support of the state and central government, thousands of Akshaya Patra staff and dedicated missionary workers, to bring a smile on the faces of the underprivileged children of our country and to empower them with education.”

“We have been following the best practices of the corporate world in terms of transparency and governance which we believe is essential to conduct the program on such a grand scale. We also thank God for making us instruments in this great service and pray that we will be able to extend this service to lakhs of more children to support them with good education.”

The staid post office in India is going places. ARM I-Solutions Private Limited (ARM), a subsidiary of Hermes i Tickets Private Limited, and India Post, today announced the launch of GENIE EASE-TICKET in Karnataka covering 150 post offices in the state, virtually turning them into multi-purpose ticketing outlets. Genie Ease-Ticket is India’s first new age CRS and first comprehensive end-to-end Travel Distribution Solution. Ease-Ticket facilitates distribution of all types of travel products such as Air, Train, Bus, Car, Hotels, Tour Packages and Movie Tickets from a single platform with a robust transaction and accounting engine in the back end.

Commenting on the launch of the Genie Ease-Ticket service, Dr. Usman Fayaz, Chairman, ARM I Solutions Private Limited , said, “The Travel Industry is set for 20% growth in the next 5 years and more distribution points are required. India Post being one of the most reliable networks in India has now tied up with ARM to install Genie Ease-Ticket at the post offices. Every post office with Genie Ease-Ticket will now enable the public to do their travel ticketing needs. We hope the people of Karnataka will utilize this facility and benefit from it. We believe that this initiative of India Post will give the common man the advantage of the modern day technologies and in the process bring people of India much closer”

ARM and India Post will install Genie Ease-Ticket and roll out the travel ticketing services in about 8000 post offices in the next 12 – 15 months. The future will see Genie Ease-Ticket accept call center and internet based order input and delivery through normal mail and express mail service to all parts of India as a special service. The 150 Post Offices in Karnataka for the pilot project have been picked across all districts for better reach.

In the near future bus bookings and car rentals shall also be distributed through all Post Offices that have GENIE EASE-TICKET terminals. The local post office staffs have been trained to handle the customer requirements pertaining to the sale of these products through GENIE EASE-TICKET. The current mode of payment shall be by cash only.

GENIE EASE-TICKET is a robust, secure and scalable product with a vast availability of travel options for the common suit to suit his budget and time convenience. GENIE EASE-TICKET shall also have a call center support provided by ARM to handle the queries.

About ARMS

ARM I Solutions Private Limited is a subsidiary of HERMES I TICKETS PRIVATE LIMITED is a technology solutions provider addressing the growing needs of the travel, service and hospitality industry. Hermes is India’s first travel solutions company that has integrated and delivered all forms of travel products and services in a single unified services platform. Our approach focuses on combining IT innovation and proven business models to deliver cutting edge technology solutions to the travel industry.

Ease-Ticket is unique because of its superior product offering – easy, safe, secure, fast ticketing for all modes of travel in a single platform with multiple payment settlement options.

About India Post

The Department of Posts comes under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology , Government of India, functions under the Minister for Communications and Information Technology , and has a Minister of State for Communications to assist the Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the discharge of various functions. The Secretary, Department of Posts, as the Chief Executive of the Department , is also the Director General, India Post , and the Chairman of the Postal Services Board.

For providing postal services, the whole country has been divided into 22 Postal Circles. These Circles manage the day-to-day functioning of the various Head Post Offices, Sub – Post Offices and Branch Post Offices, through their Regional and Divisional level arrangements.

IDS Softwares Pvt. Ltd. (IDS), global leader in providing integrated IT solutions for the hospitality industry, has reinforced its presence in Africa by entering the Nigerian Market. The company has partnered with ValuePlus Software, a leading IT enterprise, based in Abuja, Nigeria, engaged in banking software solutions, e-banking, ID card solutions, Payroll, POS, Inventory control systems and more. This is the fourth African nation where IDS hopes to repeat the success that it has enjoyed in Ghana, Egypt and Seychelles.

Commenting on the association, Mr Chukwuma Paul Chukwuka, Managing Director, Value Plus Africa, said, “The IDS – VALUEPLUS Partnership will provide the ultimate solution to the fast growing Hospitality Industry in Nigeria. Never in history has any software package been so proactively designed and customized to confront Industry dynamics. Value Plus and the stake holders in the Industry in Nigeria look forward to having the “Fortune Enterprise” with its unique pluses in features and functionality.”

Currently, North Africa is another important focus area for IDS and this association comes at a time when the company is already working on a French version of its Fortune Suite to be released soon.

Rajesh Yadav, General Manager, IDS, on association with Value Plus Software’s commented, “Finding a right partner is of high importance to IDS and associating with ValuePlus gives us immense confidence. The company has already made its reputation as a leading player in the region. They have a good support service system in place and we are taking this opportunity to introduce our products and penetrate the Nigerian market. IDS is known for its high level of quality in our products and services the world over and we aim to emulate our success in this country with the able support of Value Plus Software”

Value Plus Software’s vision is to inspire the development of ICT in West Africa. Central to this vision is their faith in World Class partnerships and international alliances. The company believes the future of people and businesses in Africa to a very large extent lies in information technology with a reasonable dose of ‘local content’.

ABOUT IDS SOFTWARES LTD

IDS Softwares Pvt Ltd is a global leader in integrated IT solutions for the Hospitality industry. The company, for over twenty years, has been designing, developing, marketing and maintaining a comprehensive range of information management systems enabling businesses of varied sizes, including hotels, restaurants, clubs and resorts. With Regional Sales and Support offices spread across the globe, the company has more than 1400 clients in over 20 countries.

IDS markets its hospitality software product under the umbrella brand ‘Fortune Suite of integrated solutions.’ The company addresses multiple aspects of the industry with its Property Management Systems, Restaurant Management Systems; Web based Products (Central Reservation Systems) and Business & Service Enhancement Products. The company’s Global R&D Center at Bangalore, India, offers support to its customers 24×7x365. IDS Softwares’ clients include Best Western, Club Mahindra Holidays, ETA Star group – Middle East, Fortune Park Group, Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, John Keells Holdings – Sri Lanka, Ramada Worldwide, Ramee Group of Hotels, Royal Orchid Hotels, Sarovar Group, The Ffort Radisson etc.

Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East IT Business of Wipro Ltd and a leading provider of IT and business transformation services announced that it has won the prestigious Intel Global Innovation Award for Storage at the Intel Developer Forum 2008 in San Francisco.

Businesses today are encountering rapid increase of digital data. Growth in existing applications like messaging, databases and emerging rich-media applications make it imperative for businesses to enhance their computing and storage needs. Adding to that are new regulatory requirements and business continuity plans which are leading organizations to have a comprehensive and scalable storage system.

Wipro identified a distinct gap in today’s storage needs and solutions offered in the market. Driven by internal R&D focus, Wipro has invested more than 1500 person hours in developing this unique storage-server solution that addresses this need. Wipro has made substantial investments in financing and staffing the project.

Wipro drives innovation as a fundamental business enabler. Wipro has global partnerships with clients and technology partners to drive innovation across different business and technology bottleneck areas. NetPower Storage-Server is one of the most recent successful outcomes of the Applied Innovation framework. Wipro has invested exclusively in a state of art Product Engineering and development cell – The Eminence Lab at its Pondicherry facility. This platform from Intel was developed, integrated, tested and certified on leading industry storage practices for supporting file share protocol services over IP at Wipro Eminence Lab.

NetPower Storage Server is a secure, reliable and flexible computing and storage-server platform/solution which integrates with industry standard storage management software to deliver a flexible all-in-one unified DAS/ NAS/ SAN storage solution. It is cluster ready for High Performance Computing users and is scalable to several Petabytes.

Supporting up to 12 enterprise-class SAS or high-capacity SATA hard drives, the Wipro NetPower Storage-Server is a high performance, flexible platform enabling enterprise–class computing and storage for small and medium businesses. Ideally positioned for mid-market customers looking for a server and entry/mid range storage solution, the Wipro NetPower Storage Server is a dual purpose server within a single box (compute and storage in one box) and is ideally priced as well for large enterprises.

The product starts delivering a storage capacity of 12 terabytes on an enterprise class SATA drive populated and up to 6 terabytes on SAS platform. It can scale up to several petabytes especially when implemented in a large cluster making this solution ideal for fast growing organizations seeking high performance file servers and secure network attached storage appliance.

The Wipro NetPower Storage-Server is also an eco-friendly product which is 100% RoHS compliant (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and is an outcome of Wipro’s global initiative towards ecological sustainability.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ashok Tripathy, Head – Wipro Personal Computing Division said “Innovation is a key business driver for us. We use Wipro’s Applied Innovation framework to create new innovative solutions that focus on resolving our customers’ business challenges. Our Supernova super-computing offering was another such milestone. We are happy that Wipro’s all-in-one server-storage solution has been recognized by Intel and awarded the first position in innovative storage solutions worldwide. We are confident that this solution will address our clients’ need for a scalable and flexible storage and computing platform.”

“We congratulate Wipro on winning the Intel Server & Storage Innovation award at the Intel Developer Forum in August 2008. It is heartening to see Wipro use the power of the latest Intel technologies to provide innovative solutions to their customers”, said Mr. R. Ravichandran, Director South Asia Sales, Intel.

Created by Intel this award recognizes unique innovation leaders on a global basis for Intel Architecture based server and storage platforms. It also recognizes distinctive innovation on Storage/Server platforms across all OEMs and ODMs at a global level. Winners are chosen based on distinctive solutions and measurable business results for challenges faced by end customers.

About Wipro Infotech

Wipro Infotech, a division of the US$4.93 billion Wipro Limited, provides enterprise customers with high value Information Technology Products, Software Services, Solutions and Consulting Services in India and the Middle East. Headquartered at Bangalore, Wipro Infotech serves customers in India through a network of 22 offices and 170 service locations across the country. It also has regional offices across the Middle East serving the region.