Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Young engineering graduates head to Valeo Innovation Challenge to make India Proud

~ Exceptional jury announced for the world’s second annual Valeo Innovation Challenge~

Mumbai, July 24th, 2015 – The Valeo Innovation Challenge is a global contest open to engineering students around the world, who are invited to play an active role in automotive innovation by designing the product or system that will create smarter, more intuitive cars by 2030. The winning team will take home €100,000 in prize money and the second and third-place teams will receive €10,000 each.
The 20 shortlisted teams have developed a working prototype of their project using the €5,000 in funding allocated to each of them by Valeo.
The participating teams come from all over the world and represent a total of 12 countries on four continents: China, Egypt, Germany, India, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uzbekistan.
As part of the challenge, technology students from India are shortlisted for international €100,000 prize from Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.  
The six finalist teams will be selected on Tuesday, September 1, 2015. They will be invited to present their projects to the jury at Paris. The top three teams will be announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2015.
Valeo devotes nearly 11% of its original equipment sales to innovation, which is a priority focus for the Group. Most of its research and development programs are focused on the design of technologies that reduce motor vehicle CO2 emissions and promote intuitive driving. Ranking among the leading patent filers in France, the company has close to 11,000 researchers working in 50 research and development centers around the world. Valeo has developed a wide array of innovative products and technologies, which in 2014 represented 35% of its order intake.
Valeo was also awarded the Top Employers label in 22 countries for 2015.
Valeo announced today the names of the 12 members of the 2015 Valeo Innovation Challenge jury, which will be chaired by Valeo CEO Jacques Aschenbroich.
The jury is made up of eminent figures from the world of science, as well as experts from Valeo:
–        Jacques ASCHENBROICH: Chief Executive Officer of Valeo.
–        Bruno BONNELL: an entrepreneur who specializes in the digital and robotics industries. He has created companies in the sector: Infogrames/Atari, Infonie, Game One, Ivolution, Robopolis, Awabot, etc. He holds the posts of Robotics Project Leader at the French Ministry of Economic, Financial and Digital Affairs and “Communicating Better” Ambassador at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development. He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the EMLYON Business School.
–        André CHIENG: Chairman of Asiatique Européenne de Commerce and Vice Chairman of the France-China Committee. Foreign trade advisor for France in China.
–        Yotam COHEN: Co-founder of Wibbitz, a start-up that developed an application that automatically turns any article, post or feed into a video summary, and head of the Wibbitz R&D department.
–        Guillaume DEVAUCHELLE: Vice President of Innovation and Scientific Development at Valeo.
–        Prof. Dr.-Ing Welf-Guntram DROSSEL: Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology, Dresden, Germany, with expertise in adaptronics and acoustics.
–        Gérard FELDZER: Chairman of the Ile de France Regional Tourism Committee, Member of the Transport and Mobility Commission, consultant and columnist, former airline pilot with Air France and former President of the French Air and Space Museum.
–        Claudie HAIGNERÉ: President of Universcience from 2010 to 2015, then head of European and space research at the European Space Agency. First French woman to visit the International Space Station, former Minister Delegate for Research and New Technologies and former Minister Delegate for European Affairs.
–        Hans-Peter KUNZE, former Senior Executive Vice-President, Sales & Business Development at Valeo. He is member of the Advisory Board of the Schnellecke Logistics Group and of the UTAC CERAM Strategy Board.
–        Christophe PERILLAT: Chief Operating Officer at Valeo.
–        Jacques ROUGERIE: Visionary French architect and oceanographer with expertise in underwater habitats.
–        Cédric VILLANI: French mathematician, Director of Institut Henri-Poincaré and professor at Claude Bernard University Lyon 1. Winner of the Fields Medal in 2010.
Valeo is an automotive supplier, partner to all automakers worldwide. As a technology company, Valeo proposes innovative products and systems that contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions and to the development of intuitive driving.
In 2014, the Group generated sales of €12.7 billion and invested over 10% of its original equipment sales in research and development. Valeo has 133 production sites, 16 research centers, 34 development centers and 15 distribution platforms, and employs 81,200 people in 29 countries worldwide.

Valeo is listed on Euronext Paris and is a member of the CAC 40 index.
Regards,
Vritti Sandhu,
9167737242
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Dear Naresh,
Last week, the media reported that Greenpeace India faces a shutdown due to the cancellation of our society registration in Tamil Nadu [1]. We’d rather be working to campaigning for clean air, water and food for India than constantly defending ourselves in court! You can ensure this by telling the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to stop the attacks on our work and us.
We are challenging these malicious attacks on our work in the court. Yesterday, the Madras High Court accepted our petition against this threatened shutdown and the hearing is scheduled for 10th August [2].
Naresh, in May we launched our solar street light campaign to light up the dark spots in our cities. We’ve almost finished the plans for the next phase of our campaign for clean air in India, and we’re working on a new safe food campaign. The MHA is trying to stop our campaigns for the benefit of all Indians with these continuing attacks.
You can read more here, but once again we need to defend ourselves. Together we need to show Rajnath Singh, the Minister of Home Affairs that these continuing attacks will not prevent us from campaigning for a better future for all Indians!

Priya Pillai
Greenpeace India
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REVIEW OF `THE NEW QUANTUM AGE` BY ANDREW WHITAKER Reviewed by S.K.SAGAR

My review of the book `The New Quantum Age“ is now live on Amazon.
It is also given here :
REVIEW OF `THE NEW QUANTUM AGE` BY ANDREW WHITAKER
Reviewed by S.K.SAGAR
“`This is another outstanding `Five Star` book. I have never reviewed any ..other than `Five Star`.
It is expensive … so I kept renewing from the British Library number of times..till I finished reading and had made enough notes on the parts I liked, and there are many.
I am quite used to Andrew Whitaker`s unique style of writing. I have read one of his other books “Einstein Bohr and the Quantum Dillemma“ which is there on my shelf. He goes into enormous detail, cutting open all the theories to near quantum levels, appreciating the theories he likes and understanding and explaining the others , without being critical of their authors, and giving all the Scientists involved, due respect. His ultimate aim – after an analytical review of all the viewpoints of the various Scientists – is to develop an understanding of the subject that makes the best sense.
His elaborate coverage of the Einstein Bohr debate in `EBATQD` as well as in this book, is spellbinding. In the end if I am asked the question..“Who won the debate ?, my answer would be `Neither Einstein nor Bohr lost the debate` “.
My review of `The New Quantum age` like my review of another book viz “Information and the nature of reality“ edited by Paul Davies and Gregerson, is I am afraid somewhat self centred as I try to correlate it with my philosophical views as expressed in my first book` Six Words` and in my next book `Intelligent Field`. The common denominators are that …“It is the Information in the field which is responsible for the phenomena“ … that “Our universe is a quantum computer, that keeps computing its own behaviour“ .. and that “things are getting more and more complex all the time“.
Having said that I now focus on the part of the book which is in support of my viewpoints expressed above. So I go to Part III of the book “An introduction to Quantum Information Theory“…Chapter 15 ..“Knowledge, Information, and ( a little about) Quantum Information“.
As the Scientist Lee Smolin (page 291 of the book) said : “There are only four prolbems which the Scientists have not been able to solve so far. These are:
1) How to combine quantum theory and general relativity to produce a single theory ( of quantum gravity) that can claim to be a complete theory of matter.
2) How to combine all the particles and forces in today`s physics to give a theory as manifestations of a fundamental unity.
3) To explain how the values of the free constants in the standard model of particle physics ( the masses and life times of the various elementary particles ) are chosen in nature.
4) To explain the existence and properties of dark matter and dark energy. “
Smolin feels that the above four problems will not be solved in isolation, and that the solution of these great problems will come together. A possible way forward — also suggested by Smolin – is to give up the attempt to apply quantum theory to the universe as a whole and to regard quantum theory as the record of quantum information that one sub system may have about another sub system as a result of their mutual interaction. In this way ideas from the study of quantum information may demonstrate how elementary particles may emerge from quantum space –time.
In other words the universe — as suggested by the Scientist Seth LLyod – can be considered as a quantum computer. One may ask the question ..`But what does the Universe compute ?.`. Seth Llyod gives the answer : “ It computes its own behaviour. At first the patterns it produces are simple, but as it processes more and more information, it produces more intricate and complex patterns – on the physical side giving rise to galaxies, stars, and planets, while on the human side, producing life, language, human beings, society and culture.“
In subsequent chapters, it is explained that a classical computer cannot simulate a quantum mechanical system, so the Universe being quantum mechanical , cannot be considered a classical computer, and can only be a quantum computer.
My own idea is that all this happens in a field, and when sufficient information is accumulated in the field, it becomes an `Intelligent Field`, where the Intelligence in the field keeps increasing all the time, and this intelligence like that of an `Infinite Mind` is focussed on creating biochemistries suitable for creating awarenesses and consciousnesses etc to understand itself. Hence that portion of the computation which the universe does, which is attributed to the intelligence of the Intelligent Field is not completely in the domain of `quantum computation` … to some extent it could even be called `classical computation`.
It could also be that the Intelligent Field is itself a product of simulation which then simulates the universe?. and it goes on and on …step by step…trillions and trillions of intermediate steps, through trillions of years and countless eons of the universe. And with each simulation the complexities increase. It must have been very very very simple in the very very very beginning. A universe from nothing at all. It could be that we the human beings are an `Intermediate step`.
This viewpoint also encapsulates the Anthropic Principle and explains what happens when a new eon of the universe is created…. “All the information is available in the field…. all the constants of nature are already known to the Intelligence in the Field , its just the `switching on` that is needed. “
Whether to call it as `Intelligent Field` ..or an `Infinite Mind` … or `God` is of course just a matter of taste. The Theists can call it `God`, and the Atheists should be happy to call it as `IF` or `IM`whatever. The dispute should end.
John C Bell who is the hero of the book, is also my hero. I have written extensively about him and about his `Inequality idea` in my book `Six Words`. To have come out with an idea that it is possible to design an experiment to show that an `Inequality` which is a direct consequence of the assumption of local realism is violated, is nothing short of ingenious. The book can be taken more or less as Bell`s biography. I like (very much) the chapter on “Bell`s last thoughts“ ( chapter 14) where he discusses the “Six possible worlds of quantum Mechanics“. These are actually three worlds relating to three different aspects of quantum mechanics, and each world is divided into two parts viz an “Unromantic world“ which corresponds to his favourite interpretation on that aspect, and a “Romantic world“ corresponding to his bugbear. This is very interesting and amusing, but I am not going to reveal these here – let the reader find out on his own – except to say that in one of them I find the `Romantic world` part makes more sense.
The best line of the book for me is where Bell admits, in fact that he is convinced that “Mind has a central place in the ultimate nature of reality“
The “Infinite mind` of the “Intelligent Field“ I guess
I am thrilled.
All in all … An excellent book
This is my fourth review. “`
By S.K.SAGAR
(Author of `Six Words … Seminar Held in a Parallel Universe`)
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Lenovo sold 50,000 units of the K3 Note in 10 seconds during the fourth flash sale on Flipkart today
Lenovo along with Flipkart announced that it sold 35, 000 units of its recently-launched powerful smartphone K3 Note Black version in 6.5 seconds at 12:00 noon and 15,000 units of the White version in 3.5 seconds at 3:00 pm during the fourth flash sale today. Lenovo K3 Note received  3, 57, 305 registrations for the fourth flash sale. A total of  17, 79, 901 registrations have been received for the smartphone in the first four weeks of its sale.  The registrations for the next week sale start today at 6:00 p.m. Lenovo K3 Note Black will be open for sale at 12:00 noon and White version at 3:00 p.m. (IST) on Wednesday, 5th August, 2015.
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RBI releases Half Yearly Report on Management of Foreign Exchange Reserves

The 24th Half Yearly Report on Management of Foreign Exchange Reserves pertains to the period Oct 2014 to March 2015. The foreign exchange reserves stood at USD 313.84 billion as at end-September 2014. During the half year under review, reserves increased to USD 315.91 as at end-October 2014 and marginally declined to USD 315.56 billion as at end-November 2014. It increased to USD 320.65 billion as at end-December 2014 and further increased to USD 341.64 billion as at end-March 2015. While the latest position of foreign exchange reserves as on July 17, 2015 stands at USD 353.33 billion.


The Reserve Bank of India publishes half-yearly reports on management of foreign exchange reserves for bringing about more transparency and enhancing the level of disclosure. The foreign exchange reserves stood at USD 313.84 billion as at end-September 2014. During the half year under review, reserves increased to USD 315.91 as at end-October 2014 and marginally declined to USD 315.56 billion as at end-November 2014. It increased to USD 320.65 billion as at end-December 2014 and further increased to USD 341.64 billion as at end-March 2015.

Although both US dollar and Euro are intervention currencies and the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) are maintained in major currencies like US dollar, Euro, Pound Sterling, Japanese Yen, etc., the foreign exchange reserves are denominated and expressed in US dollar only. Movements in the FCA occur mainly on account of purchases and sales of foreign exchange by the RBI in the foreign exchange market, income arising out of the deployment of the foreign exchange reserves, external aid receipts of the Central Government and the effects of revaluation of the assets.

Movement In Foreign exchange reserves                                                                                                                                (USD Million)
Source: Compiled from RBI. Note: FCA (Foreign Currency Assets): FCAs are maintained as a multi-currency portfolio comprising major currencies, such as, US dollar, Euro, Pound sterling, Japanese yen, etc. and are valued in terms of US dollars. FCA excludes (a) investment in bonds issued by IIFC ( UK ) and (b) SDR holdings of Reserve Bank which is included under SDR. SDR (Special Drawing Rights) and RTP refers to the Reserve Tranche Position in the IMF.

While, the latest position of foreign exchange reserves as on July 17, 2015 is about USD 353 billion consisting of FCA at about USD 329 billion, Gold reserves at USD 19.1 billion, SDR at around USD 4 billion and RTP at USD 1.3 billion

Foreign exchange reserves as on July 17,2015                                                                                                  US $ Billion
Source: Compiled from RBI.

Forward Outstanding– The net forward outstanding (receivables) of the Reserve Bank in domestic foreign exchange market stood at USD 8,322 million as at the end of March 2015. 

The net India ’s International Investment Position (IIP) as at end-March 2015 was negative at USD 363.0 billion, implying that our external liabilities are more than the external assets. The net IIP as at end-March 2014 and end-September 2014 was USD (-) 336.8 billion and USD (-) 356.9 billion respectively

Adequacy of Reserves– At the end of March 2015, the import cover increased to 8.9 months from 8.1 months at end-September 2014. The ratio of short-term debt to the foreign exchange reserves, which was 27.7% at end-September 2014, declined to 24.8% at end-March 2015. The ratio of volatile capital flows (defined to include cumulative portfolio inflows and short-term debt) to the reserves has declined from 94.3% as at end-September 2014 to 91.7% as at end-March 2015.

Management of Gold Reserves– The Reserve Bank held 557.75 tonnes of gold; of which, 265.49 tonnes are held overseas in safe custody with the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements. It formed about 5.6 per cent of the total foreign exchange reserves in value terms (USD) as at end-March, 2015
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AIMA Invitation for 20th Annual Convocation
on
Thursday, 13th August 2015 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. 
at
Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre (IHC), New Delhi-110 003
Dear Mr Sagar,
Greetings from AIMA!
It’s my pleasure to share that All India Management Association Centre for Management Education (AIMA  CME)  awards  Diplomas to candidates and recognises meritorious students in its Annual Convocation.
AIMA CME is organizing its 20th Annual Convocation scheduled on 13th August 2015 (Thursday) at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre (Entry from Gate No.3), New Delhi-110 003 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
General (Retd.) V P Malik, PVSM, AVSM, Former Chief of Army Staff  has kindly  agreed to be the Chief Guest at the occasion.
It’s our honour to invite you to join us for the Convocation. The e-Invitation card is attached for your reference.
We would request you to send Reply Form, confirmation of your attendance at the earliest to Mr N S Rawat at nsrawat@aima.in
Looking forward to your confirmation and having you with us.
With regards,
Dr Raj Agrawal
Director
Centre for Management Education
All India Management Association
Andhra Association Building,
Andhra Bhawan
4th Floor, 24-25, Institutional Area
Lodi Road,
New Delhi-110 003
P:011-24629623 (D)  011-24645100 Extn.701/704
F:011-24626689/24643035
E:dcme@aima.in

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