In the News

The Think Next program, launched by Microsoft Ventures in India and iSPIRT Foundation, gained momentum with the announcement of its first set of initiatives. These are aimed at resolving the key issues responsible for the lack of meaningful exits in India’s software product industry, which is a major cause for concern among India’s product startups. Together with iSPIRT, Microsoft Ventures will conduct workshops to prepare Indian entrepreneurs for M&A, focusing on due diligence, valuation and presenting to potential acquirers.

In an announcement by Microsoft India, the company said that the Indian CodeBlue team has won second place in the Apps for Office Challenge at the Imagine Cup 2014 Worldwide Finals held in Seattle on July 31. The Imagine Cup is Microsoft’s premier competition for student technologists, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs from across the globe and a cornerstone of the Microsoft YouthSpark initiative. CodeBlue was awarded a cash prize worth USD 3,000 for their innovative app.

In a first-of-its-kind deal for Microsoft, the company announced that the entire range of its Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB) portfolio will be available in India exclusively on Amazon.in starting September 1, 2014. This will include Xbox One, Xbox 360, Kinect, Xbox Live, Xbox Accessories and all Microsoft-published Xbox game titles. With this announcement, Amazon.in has also launched pre-orders for Xbox One that includes an exciting bundle of products.

Amazon.in has announced the launch of its shopping app for the Windows Phone Store. The Amazon app offers Windows Phone users in India a convenient, fast and secure way to search, browse and compare offers, and make purchases quickly and easily. Talking about the new app, Joseph Landes, Microsoft India Chief Evangelist said, “Consumers are increasingly looking for ways to shop from the comfort of their homes and when they are on the move, without having to actually step into a physical store.”

Microsoft brought together over 70 leaders of India-based IT organizations of multinational companies at its first-ever MNC IT Summit. The event was an effort to shape their collective vision for the industry and identify areas for collaboration. The theme of the summit was “What will it take for the MNC IT Community to increase its impact ten-fold in five years?” and the IT leaders articulated their vision, approach and path forward for their community.

Sixteen-year old Delhi student Arjit Kansal has been named the 2014 Microsoft Office Specialist World Champion in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010. The award was announced by Certiport, a Pearson VUE business and a test delivery solution provider for the global workforce and academic markets. Among other prizes, Kansal was also awarded a $5,000 scholarship during the event at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort. “It was an amazing feeling, I cannot express it in words,” said Kansal, after hearing the news.

Innovations in technology can help solve many challenges and Microsoft is aiming to do just that with the use of local language technology in India. By incorporating Hindi in the Windows Operating System and making local language content accessible, the company has bridged a huge divide—helping more people access the Internet and avail its benefits. Jyotsna Makkar, CMO, Microsoft India explains how Microsoft is committed to helping the Hindi-speaking market achieve its full potential through technology.

Provider of a digital commerce platform to retailers, MartJack Enterpise recently announced that its global enterprise customer base has significantly increased. A part of company’s success is credited to the decision of migrating its e-commerce platform to Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform and infrastructure. The flexibility, scalability and agility offered by cloud computing helped MartJack bring in customized deployments at quick pace with minimal investments—making it the market leader in the enterprise e-commerce platform space in India and the Middle East.

In a bid to lure more users to its services, Microsoft has its eyes set on making its products and services available on other platforms. One of these efforts has seen the Office for iPad release, which has bought desktop-like editing features to the iPad. Now Microsoft has rolled out updates that will allow you to do a lot more with these apps, including the use of third-party fonts in your documents, PDF support and a handy picture tool.

In an effort to answer CEO Satya Nadella’s call to think differently, Microsoft has kicked off its first ever global ‘one-week hackathon’. The event will have Microsoft employees across 114 countries, including India, simultaneously hacking to come up with apps and solutions for use across sections, including government, consumers, enterprises, non-profit partners, educators, etc. The company says that this event is a step towards its transformation from being an incumbent to being a challenger, in areas like cloud and mobile.