Recent News

Microsoft Ventures in India announced the ‘graduation’ of 17 technology start-ups including App Virality, Bookpad, Imly and Sliderule. 16 of these companies constituted the fourth batch of its accelerator programme, besides another one from an earlier batch. Microsoft Ventures in India Director Ravi Narayan said, “We felt the need for a forum to brings together all stakeholders and provides them with a platform to discuss current initiatives, decide on actionable follow-up steps and measure the progress over a period of time.”

Microsoft said it will let partners resell Azure cloud services through its Open Licensing program starting August 1, in what could be a bid to keep small and medium businesses from drifting to Amazon Web Services and Google. As things stand now, Microsoft customers have two choices: they can either buy Azure services directly from Microsoft or get them as part of an Enterprise Agreement. Under Open Licensing, Microsoft’s huge base of partners will be able to buy Azure services from distributors and resell them to customers.

At Microsoft India’s first annual Youth-Spark Live event in Bangalore, aspiring entrepreneurs sought guidance on their all-important first step. The programme had over 100 attendees. Keynote speaker and president of Microsoft International Jean-Philippe Courtois said: “Youth in India can drive economic and social impact, but there is a need to empower them with en-trepreneurial skills.”

Microsoft will focus on multiple mobile brands-Lumia at the highend, X and Asha series at the mid level along with the basic phones as each of these catered to different set of customers, according (Raghuvesh Sarup, director Sales, Nokia India, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobiles Oy. “However, most mid level buyers were in favour of a smart phones Instead of a feature phones and were willing to spend between Rs 8,000 and Rs 12,000,” he said.

Microsoft launched Surface Pro 3 at an event in New York. The company said that the device, which succeeds Surface Pro 2, combines the best of a tablet and laptop in a single gadget. Panos Panay, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Surface said, “So many people carry both a laptop and a tablet but really want just one device that serves all purposes. Surface Pro 3 is the tablet that can replace your laptop — packing all the performance of a fully powered laptop into a thin, light and beautifully designed device.” Microsoft has not yet launched a Surface tablet in India. It is likely that Surface Pro 3 may not come to Indian market any time soon. Amrish Goyal, the head of Windows division at Microsoft India, had earlier told TOI that the company believed the Surface tablets were too expensive for Indian market. He revealed that instead of Surface tablets, in India Microsoft was focusing on less expensive tablets created by Microsoft’s hardware partners like Lenovo and Dell.

TaxiForSure, India’s leading taxi aggregator has announced the launch of its new mobile application for Windows phone users. The mobile app developed along with Microsoft provides customers an enhanced experience and a convenient option to book cabs on their Windows phone. Commenting on the announcement, TaxiForSure, Co-Founder and Director, Aprameya R. said, “We are keen to extend our unique experience on the app to Windows phone users. Customers can now book a taxi with just 3 taps under 30 seconds. We aim at eliminating call center hassles for all taxi users in Delhi (NCR) Bangalore, Chennai and all our future cities across India. Being a technology-friendly company, we work towards assuring that the taxi booking experience is user friendly and efficient.”

In an interview, Karan Bajwa, MD, Microsoft India spoke about Microsoft being both a consumer company and a commercial company. He said, “The core strategy for Microsoft today is to be a devices and services company from an on-premise software provider. The cloud is the enabling glue, the most important element to bring devices to life. That is the business we see ourselves in today. If I look at the enterprise commercial side of the business, the cloud is playing a crucial role in integrating the SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud). In addition, the cloud itself is a fairly disruptive trend that is making businesses bring together the efficiencies for newer work scenarios as they emerge. The Microsoft ecosystem is unparalleled, both from a partner standpoint as well as a developer ecosystem standpoint. These offerings, put together, are what we would like to be known for.”

CODESS, a community for women coders established by Skype in March 2013 to explore ways to promote gender diversity in the engineering field, was brought to India by Microsoft. Around 30 women with 2-8 years of experience in development, testing and project management from various companies attended the event at Microsoft’s development center in Bangalore. Vikram Manocha, Head of HR, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt Ltd., said, “At Microsoft, diversity is at the core of our culture. Emphasis on diversity and inclusion enables us to build a workforce and create a work environment that fosters talent and creativity and welcomes different experiences, perspectives, and capabilities. Gender diversity is a key component of that, with several initiatives in place focused on advancing it. India is one of our largest R&D centers outside Redmond. The R&D workforce in India is 2200 plus, and we have taken up several D&I initiatives to achieve a balanced workforce. Leadership commitment and environment sensitization to D&I, networks for women, Springboard, Digigirlz are just some of these programs.”

If Satya Nadella celebrated his first 100 days as CEO of Microsoft today, no one could blame him, a corporate leadership expert said. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been in charge for 100 days as of today. (Photo: Microsoft). “I’d give him very high marks, an A or A-, for his first 100 days,” said Randy Ottinger, an executive vice president with Kotter International, a Cambridge Mass. consultancy that specializes in leadership change and setting corporate strategy.