China aims to build the world's fastest supercomputer by 2020. A Chinese supercomputing expert said China plans to build a supercomputer with 100 petaflops of processing power by 2015 and the first exascale computer, which would be 1000 times more powerful than current petascale computers, by 2020. Chinese scientists have started research on the core technologies needed and are cultivating expertise to achieve this goal. If successful, it would represent a major advancement in supercomputing capability.

1. China has joined the glob-
al race to build the
world’s fastest supercom-
puter in 2020.
“China is preparing to
work on a supercomputer
with a capacity of 100
petaflops by 2015 and try
to produce the first exas-
cale computer in 2020,”
the China Daily quoted
the Tianhe-1A supercom-
puter’s Deputy Chief
Designer, Hu Qingfeng,
as saying.
“We have kicked off the
research of some core
technologies and man-
power cultivation for the
plan,” he added.
Chinese scientists are
attempting to produce
Exascale computing,
which means generating
computing beyond the
current petascale. If
achieved, it will repre-
sent a thousandfold
increase on that scale.
—IANS
IInn bbrriieeff
HTC TO STICK WITH
GOOGLE’S ANDROID
TTaaiippeeii:: HTC will stick with
Google's mobile software
despite the software giant's
planned acquisition of com-
petitor Motorola Mobility,
its chief executive said
PS3 PRICES TO DROP
BY 15 PER CENT
MMuummbbaaii:: Sony PlayStation
India has announced a drop
in the prices of PS3 gaming
consoles by 15 per cent in
India. Earlier the company
had announced a price
slash in the US, Europe and
Japan.
NRN gets what
you say in 30
seconds and
comes out with 7
new ideas in
three minutes.
–––– GGaanneesshh NNaattaarraajjaamm
entrepreneur
MTNL SHARING
INFRA WITH COS
NNeeww DDeellhhii:: State-run
Mahanagar Sanchar Nigam
Limited is sharing its pas-
sive infrastructure, includ-
ing mobile towers with
Reliance Communications,
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone,
Idea Cellular and Aircel in
its efforts to boost revenue.
CHINA TO BUILD
THE FASTEST
SUPERCOMPUTER
India’s largest IT services
firm Tata Consultancy
Service (TCS) said iON —
its integrated informa-
tion technology solution
for small and medium
business (SMB) — targets
a revenue of $1 billion in
the next five years.
iON provides on-
demand business solu-
tions using cloud comput-
ing technology and was
launched on Friday.
“This is a segment
where no one else has
focussed on. iON will pro-
vide SMBs access to
world-class, simple-to-use
and scalable technology
tools,” said Venguswamy
Ramaswamy, global
head, iON, TCS. The
company also said that it
wants to ramp up over
1,000 customers this year.
iON has been developed
to deliver IT in the third-
generation service model
to SMBs. Using a pay-per-
use business model, iON
helps SMBs leverage
world-class technology
solutions as a key busi-
ness differentiator.
—IANS
TCS ARM TARGETS
$1 BILLION
REVENUE BY 2015
c m y k c m y k
TECHNOMICSQUOTE OF THE DAY
PAGE 11
The FTC has backed off investigat-
ing Ashton Kucher for failing to dis-
close his technology investments .
A Twitter account in the name of
Anna Hazare had constant
updates from Ramlila grounds.
NNeeww DDeellhhii,, AAuugg.. 2211:: In
welcome relief for mil-
lions of mobile sub-
scribers from the men-
ace of unwanted bulk
SMSs, Communications
Minister Kapil Sibal
Friday said the do not
disturb (DND) registra-
tion number will get
operational in six weeks.
“In six weeks, it will be
imposed,” said Sibal.
Last year, the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of
India (TRAI) announced
a set of new measures
under the Telecom
C o m m e r c i a l
C o m m u n i c a t i o n s
Customer Preference
Regulations 2010 with
the objective to provide
an effective mechanism
for curbing unsolicited
commercial communica-
tions after realising that
its previous attempt to
curb unsolicited calls
had not really worked.
The regulation
includes fine of ` 25,000
to ` 250,000 on defaulting
firms. Sibal also men-
tioned that the govern-
ment has also decided to
impose “heavy fines” on
the telecom marketing
companies engaged in
sending such unsolicited
SMSs under various cat-
egories to the people.
Under the regulation,
the customers can also
choose to block all calls
or allow messages /calls
under seven categories
including finance, real-
ty, education, health,
consumer goods, enter-
tainment and tourism.
The minister said the
new guidelines have
been framed keeping the
interest of customers
and telemarketers in
mind — IANS
Relief from bulk SMSs in 42 days
With HP tablet dead,
who can stop Apple?
■ HP's decision to surrender its tablets and PC business underscores
how Apple has transformed consumer electronics in just four years
NNeeww YYoorrkk,, AAuugg 2211:: The sudden
demise of Hewlett-Packard
Co’s WebOS TouchPad after
just seven weeks on shelves
was a reminder of how tech
giants have failed so far to take
a bite out of Apple Inc’s iPad.
The TouchPad joins Dell
Streak 5 in the tablet graveyard
and weak sales for many offer-
ings suggest others are bound
to follow.
“The non-iPad tablets just
won’t sell at retail. That’s the
clear message from events over
the past few days,” said Mark
Gerber, an analyst at Boston
research and investment firm
Detwiler Fenton.
Other tablets that have failed
to click with consumers
include Asustek Computer Eee
Pad Transformer and the
Xoom from Motorola Mobility,
which Google Inc plans to buy.
Research in Motion’s
PlayBook received scathing
reviews and sales have been
slack, but it will probably sur-
vive since it is key to RIM’s
strategy.
“I do not expect RIM to be
shutting down PlayBook sales
any time soon or abandoning
that platform, because RIM
views it as its future,” said
Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC
Financial in New York.
Apple’s rivals have not fared
any better in designing soft-
ware for tablets.
Apple’s iOS tablet software
accounted for 61.3 percent of
the tablet market in the second
quarter, more than double the
30.1 percent share held by
Google’s Android, its nearest
competitor. Microsoft held a
paltry 4.6 percent share and
RIM 3.3 percent, according to
Strategy Analytics.
But the landscape could soon
change. Google’s move this
week to buy Motorola Mobility,
a hardware manufacturer, has
also potentially raised the
stakes against Apple as it will
give the Internet leader devices
to showcase its software -- just
as Apple does.
All eyes are now on Google’s
“Ice Cream Sandwich” system,
which will unite the Android
software used in tablets and
smartphones. That is expected
to encourage developers to
flock to the platform and create
better apps.
Microsoft could also pose a
threat when it releases its
tablet software, code-named
Windows 8, but this probably
won’t be until the fall of 2012.
“The ecosystem built around
Microsoft is the largest com-
puting ecosystem out there, so
this makes it the company
most likely to get significant
traction in the tablet market-
place,” said BGC’s Gillis.
Microsoft has said the soft-
ware will run on a range of
devices from traditional PCs to
laptops and tablets, and incor-
porate mouse and keyboard
commands.
Amazon.com, the maker of
the popular Kindle e-reader, is
also expected to announce
plans to release a tablet this
fall, providing a challenge to
Apple.
The Amazon offering could be
a “game-changer,” Colin
Sebastian, an analyst at Robert
Baird & Co, said in a recent
note.
The tablet will likely feature
Android’s Honeycomb OS sys-
tem, a 7-inch screen and priced
under $300, he said.
Sebastian forecast sales of up
to 3 million units in the first
year and said they would even-
tually outsell other Android-
enabled tablets from Motorola
and Acer, and could potentially
surpass Samsung’s Galaxy
Tab.
Amazon’s as-yet unnamed
tablet poses a significant threat
to Apple because of the
Kindle’s popularity and the
movie and music services the
company sells.
Analysts also expect Amazon
to subsidize the tablet’s price,
which could also boost sales.
“Amazon is widely viewed as a
wild card. It has the potential
to be disruptive,” said NPD
analyst Ross Rubin.
The crowded market has not
discouraged Sony Corp either.
The consumer electronics
giant is going full steam ahead
with plans to release its first
two tablets in the fall.
“We’re going to see many
competitors come and go,” a
Sony spokeswoman said.
“We’re going to bring the best
of all of the assets at our dis-
posal to bear: hardware, con-
tent and network services.”
—Reuters
RIM to launch
music service soon
NNeeww YYoorrkk,, AAuugg 2211::
BlackBerry maker
Research In Motion is
close to rolling out its
own music streaming
service that will work
across its mobile
devices, according to
four people familiar
with the plans.
The new service is
likely part of an attempt
by RIM to improve its
BlackBerry Messenger
service as it competes
with the mobile media
platform strengths of
rival Apple Inc and
Google Inc's Android.
RIM is in late-stage
negotiations with major
labels, including
Vivendi SA's Universal
Music Group, Sony
Corp's Sony Music,
Warner Music Group
and EMI Group.
RIM has been enhanc-
ing its BlackBerry
Messenger since
announcing its "social
platform" at last
September's DevCon
event where it unveiled
the PlayBook tablet
computer. — Reuters
LLoonnddoonn,, AAuugg 2211:: For all of
the palace intrigue recent-
ly about who in Rupert
Murdoch’s News
Corporation kingdom
knew what about phone
hacking when, one funda-
mental question about the
scandal has gone mostly
unanswered:
The answer is, more
than you might think.
As Edgar Dworsky, a
consumer advocate who
f o u n d e d
ConsumerWorld.org, dis-
covered recently, some-
one armed with just a bit
of personal information
about a target can also
gain access to the auto-
mated phone systems for
Bank of America and
Chase credit card holders.
Once those systems
recognise the phone num-
ber of the incoming call
and those bits of personal
information, they offer up
the latest on the cardhold-
er’s debts, late payments
and credit limits. Bank of
America’s computer will
even read off a list of
dozens of recent charges,
including names of doc-
tors and other businesses
the cardholder might
have patronised. There
are additional steps that
the mobile phone compa-
nies and the card issuers
could take to stop this sort
of thing from ever happen-
ing. The fact that many of
them don’t, however,
makes this your problem
to solve.
These sorts of breaches
wouldn’t happen without
spoofing, and surprisingly
enough, it’s an activity
that turns out to be per-
fectly legal, up to a point.
Late last year, President
Obama signed the Truth
in Caller ID Act, which
prohibits knowingly
using spoofing services to
defraud, cause harm or
wrongfully obtain any-
thing of value. The fine is
up to $10,000 for a single
incident.
The new law, however,
is not much of a disincen-
tive for people already
engaged in illegal activity.
After all, for years, even
before commercial ser-
vices were available,
hacker thieves were
manipulating caller ID
information to convince
consumers that a bank
was phoning. — NYT
PHONE HACKING
Your voice mail may not be secure at all
M
y talk at the All
I n d i a
M a n a g e m e n t
Association, AIMA-
Healthex Conference,
held in the city, discussed
on the framework and key
issues for enhancing
access to healthcare in
India and the opportuni-
ties and challenges for
universal access to
healthcare in the country.
There have been many
prescriptions, policy
drafts, white papers float-
ing around on what India
needs to do to provide
quality healthcare to its
population. I discussed on
a simplified framework of
focusing on the 5 Ps —
pattern of diseases, para-
meters, people, payments
(including public-private
partnerships, PPPs and
profits) and policies.
The pattern of diseases
in India is cutting across
urban-rural divide. Gone
are the days when infec-
tious and communicable
diseases were largely
rural. We are witnessing
TB and malaria in urban
India afflicting the rich
and on the other hand dia-
betics and hypertension
in the rural poor.
This dichotomy needs
creating delivery models
of healthcare that are
‘universal’ and not urban
or rural centric.
The second issue is that
given the ‘genetic’ make
up of India, we need to
really understand the
health risks that can
afflict India — to plan for
access to healthcare infra-
structure we need to cre-
ate and support.
When we compare the
parameters that indicate
how well our welfare state
is providing access to
healthcare with China, a
country that is as populat-
ed and has complex issues
of managing and provid-
ing healthcare, India
stands a distance second
behind China on all the
parameters.
If we analyse the invest-
ments in healthcare in
India, it will reveal scam
of sorts! Hence, it will be
better for policy makers
to draw a dividing line
between what is ‘public’
and what is ‘private’
domain in provision for
healthcare. Schemes can
then be drawn out to
enable the access to ‘pub-
lic’ infrastructure and
enable ‘private’ delivery.
The key issue here is not
just increasing the supply
of doctors and nurses. We
also require architects to
conceptualise and design
hospital and bio medical
technicians to repair and
increase the life span of
the bio medical equip-
ment used or disused in
the hospitals.
We have struggled to
shy away from maintain-
ing profits from health-
care as a private enter-
prise. Hence even PPP
schemes and other initia-
tives including universal
health insurance seems to
get flawed when imple-
mented.
Attracting investments
(payments) in healthcare
is to ensuring universal
access to healthcare and
profit has to be one of the
key motives that drive it!
Finally, on the last P-
Policy. Our health deliv-
ery policies are fragment-
ed and there is a yawning
gap between the intent
and the implementation.
Strengthening this would
mean taking a bold step
forward.
Let me now discuss the
potential solutions.
Singapore’s approach in
bringing healthcare to the
doorstep of every citizen
is clearly exemplary and
well planned initiative
that we can learn from.
The strategies are to inte-
grate the healthcare con-
tinuum, from prevention
to terminal disease man-
agement, with linkages
across the healthcare
value chain from drug
discovery to health insur-
ance.
We also need to enable
integration between
healthcare and advanced
biomedical sciences. We
need a super-ministry
integrating union min-
istry of HRD, health, sci-
ence and technology, tele-
com and the state govern-
ment department to
demonstrate what
Singapore could deliver
in the shortest possible
time not only to their
nation but also to the
world!
A Dose of IT
Kapil Khandelwal
Integration is a
modern necessity
Kapil Khandelwal is Director, EquNev Capital, a
niche investments banking and advisory services
firm and an
independent advisory board member with leading
DND registration number will be operational in six
weeks time.
TTuummbbiirraa,, AAuugg 2211:: The
Internet is letting a
school sprout in the
Amazon where teachers
tend not to linger due to
harsh living conditions
and a scarcity of stu-
dents. Teachers in
Manaus, the capital of
the Brazilian state of
Amazonas, conduct
lessons streamed to stu-
dents in the village of
Tumbira using an
Internet connection
made possible with a
g e n e r a t o r - p o w e r e d
radio signal. If not for
"distance learning,"
children from far-flung
Amazon river commu-
nities would forgo
school or endure ardu-
ous boat trips to places
with traditional
schools. — AFP
LESSONS STREAMED ON THE INTERNET
AAss PPCC wwaanneess,, HHPP sseett
ffoorr aann eexxiitt ssttrraatteeggyy
Although the world is depen-
dent on personal computers,
making them has not been a
great business for most
American companies for almost
a decade. The announcement by
Hewlett-Packard that it was
considering offloading its PC
business, was a clear sign of the
difficulties.
If HP goes through with the
idea, it would follow IBM, an
early PC maker, which was one
of the first to recognise the
long-term problems and, in
2005, sold its business to
Lenovo. Other PC makers like
Compaq (acquired by HP),
Gateway and Packard Bell were
absorbed by others or just
faded away.
HHPP ssiinnkkss aass iinnvveessttoorrss
fflleeee bbuussiinneessss rreevvaammpp
Shares of Hewlett-Packard
slumped by more than 20 per-
cent to a six-year low on
Friday as investors wiped
about $16 billion off the mar-
ket value of the world's
biggest PC maker in a
resounding rejection of its plan
for a major shake-up.
Investors also appeared to
lose confidence in Chief
Executive Leo Apotheker after
a flurry of HP announcements
on Thursday including an $11.7
billion acquisition offer, a shut-
tering of its mobile efforts and
the potential spin-off its PC
business.
"They're doing too many
things at the same time," said
Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu.
HHPP mmaayy bbuuyy ssooffttwwaarree
ccoommppaannyy ffoorr $$1100 bbnn
Personal computer giant
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is in talks
to buy British software compa-
ny Autonomy for about $10 bil-
lion, a media report said. HP —
based in Palo Alto, California —
is expected to announce the
plans soon, Xinhua reported.
Currently listed on the London
Stock Exchange, Autonomy is
Britain's second-largest soft-
ware maker and has joint head-
quarters in Cambridge and San
Francisco. Microsoft and Oracle
were also reportedly bidding on
Autonomy.
Todd Bradley, HP’s Executive Vice President Personal Systems Group,
right, showcase HP and Palm tablets, earlier this year.
MONDAY 22 | AUGUST 2011
NEW DELHI