Author: Microsoft Stories

According to Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India, the Goods and Services Tax is going to be a big challenge for a services related company like Microsoft. Changes have to be made to the landmark tax reform, he added.

Microsoft hosted a two-day event in Bengaluru and some of the prominent names present were Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India, Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) and Sriram Rajamani, Managing Director, Microsoft Research India. The company is looking to create building blocks based on the current trends like the massive explosion of data, intelligence from machine learning and advanced analytics, along with the economies and agility of cloud computing to drive digital transformation in India.

Microsoft is working with device makers in India to make technology accessible to more people to help bridge the digital divide with the use of technology and bringing digital literacy. Alvaro Celis, Global Vice President, Microsoft, says, “Our approach is very much partner-led. We believe in creating the ecosystem and we work with our partners. For a lot of initiatives with the government such as education, we work very closely with our partners.”

As per a report published on Ars Technicia, Microsoft is working on new project codenamed as ‘Skype For Life’. The report, which is yet to be confirmed, claims that Microsoft is working on this project for a new client at its Redmond, Washington headquarters. Currently, there are way too many clients in the market for Skype but the new client, which the company is working with, will get all the existing Skype elements under one umbrella.

In a move that should worry local providers, large multinationals, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and IBM, have announced the launch of data center facilities in India over the last year to capture the thriving local cloud computing demand. However, in this case, it is the Indian providers who seem to be gaining from the MNCs’ move. Because the data centers launched by these large multinationals, including AWS and Microsoft, are all owned by Indian providers.

International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP), India West board inaugurated the new chapter in Pune. There exists a large Microsoft partner ecosystem in Pune; 250 plus Microsoft partners are based in the city. The chapter aims to create a networking forum for local partners and help them collaborate on business opportunities and network with Microsoft to evaluate new opportunities in order to grow their business.

In an industry first, customers can now complete an end to end recharge and make bill payments using Cortana, Microsoft’s voice-based smart assistant. Freecharge, India’s fastest growing digital payments platform has enabled voice support transactions on its Windows 10 app version. Cortana works by using the ‘Favorites’ feature in the app. It recognizes the name that users set in Favorites and enables a transaction for those favorites without even opening the Freecharge app.

Speaking at the sidelines of a Microsoft conference taking place in Bengaluru, Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik outlined the company’s plans to build Aadhaar-enabled products for the Digital India initiative. “Think about an Aadhaar-embedded Skype,” said Pramanik, “where you use the Aadhaar to verify your identity. Right now you verify your ID using IOTP (a one-time password) but it could be verified using your iris, for example.”