Author: Microsoft Stories

Microsoft Ventures in India announced the launch of new corporate engagement initiative – Innovation for Corporates (ICI) at Think Next 2015. The program aims to work with enterprise businesses to develop and implement different models to attain innovation driven growth by engaging with startups. Ravi Narayan, Director at Microsoft Ventures in India said, “More and more enterprise businesses are looking at us for guidance, and we are positive that institutionalizing our efforts under ICI will help us scale up and help even more businesses.”

To improve collaboration among its workforce, Nous Infosystems has adopted Microsoft Office 365. Deployed across three offices for 600 employees, the cloud-based solution has enhanced communication and collaboration with stakeholders in and outside the organization using tools like Skype for Business, OneDrive and Exchange Online. As a result, Nous Infosystems is expecting to reduce overall operations expenditure up to 25% by 2018.

Windows Phone users who have been testing the upcoming version of Windows 10 for smartphones have a new build to play with. Microsoft just released build 10136 of Windows 10 Mobile to beta testers in the Windows Insider Program. It brings a bunch of improvements to the new mobile OS, including design changes to Cortana, the virtual assistant that was first released with Windows Phone 8.1.

Microsoft is trying to lure more startups onto its Azure cloud services by offering a substantial US$120,000 credit for companies that qualify for its BizSpark Plus program. Starting July 1, qualifying companies will receive $10,000 worth of Azure credits every month for a year, which they can spend on services to power their business.

Microsoft has announced the availability of celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor’s Recipe App, developed in association with Hungama Digital Entertainment, on Windows Phone 8.1. Windows Phone users can now learn and cook various cuisines from a repository of more than 8500 recipes from India and around the world, all handpicked by Sanjeev Kapoor and his team of culinary masters.

Microsoft are tweaking a batch of 100 last gen titles to be playable on the latest console, and gamers will (thankfully) not have to pay for titles they already own. Titles on the list of the first 100 include Mass Effect, Banjo Kazooie, Super Meat Boy, and Perfect Dark, among others. There’s also a new “Elite” Xbox controller, a customisable gamepad that works on Windows 10 as well.

Snapdeal and Microsoft today announced the launch of the official Microsoft online store on Snapdeal. Speaking on the occasion, Sharlin Thayil, Group OEM Director Microsoft India said, “Our latest store on Snapdeal will help us reach more such customers and offer excellent choice, value and service that customers expect from Microsoft stores.”

Indian and multinational companies in the information technology sector are seeing a steady growth in number of women in technical roles, reflecting the impact of their efforts to increase diversity. “A large number of women workers are entry-level and present in certain sectors, such as BPO and IT-enabled services. This is why we are focused on enhancing the diversity ratio in India’s IT sector, for we believe women in IT can have a strong business impact,” said Rohit Thakur, head of human resources, Microsoft India.