Ford buys software startup Livio

Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that it acquired the startup company Livio in a bid to accelerate its efforts to help drivers safely access content on their smartphone while on the road.

Livio, which is based in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale, Michigan, develops software that lets drivers connect to their smartphones through their car radios or dashboard infotainment systems. It was founded five years ago by Jake Sigal, a former employee of parts supplier Delphi Corp.

Ford paid less than $10 million for the 11-person startup, said Paul Mascarenas, Ford's chief technical officer. Though owned by Ford, Livio will keep supplying its current customers, including General Motors Co.

Livio is Ford's first technology acquisition in 13 years. Mascarenas said Livio complements Ford's efforts to allow drivers to safely access phone apps like Pandora, Major League Baseball and Spotify from their cars. Ford's AppLink system, which lets drivers access their apps through voice recognition, will be inside an estimated 7 million vehicles by 2015, Mascarenas said.

Mascarenas said he and Sigal began talking about an acquisition earlier this year.

Sigal said joining Ford will help his company's efforts to promote a single standard for in-vehicle connectivity. Car companies are now using a variety of systems, which makes it harder for app developers to bring apps to market quickly. Ford has also promoted the development of a single standard.

"This helps us accelerate the industry standard, which is desperately needed," Sigal said. "It's a lot easier pushing a standard when you're not just a startup in metro Detroit."

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IIT-Kanpur opens office in New York.

With an aim to hunt for qualified and capable
faculty abroad, IIT-Kanpur  has set up an office
in New York  with alumnus Sanjeev
Khosla designated as the overseas brand
ambassador of the institute.
The office will also try to amass funds through
the alumni based there, IIT-Kanpur Director
Indranil Manna said.
The office will help in connecting foreign
faculty with IIT-K. More than a dozen teachers
teaching in foreign institutions have expressed
an interest in associating with IIT-K, Manna
said.
Also, ex-IITians posted at good positions in
various American cities are willing to help IIT-
K. They are also collecting funds to do the
same, he said.
They are also in talks with international level
technical educational institutes and universities
about research and other issues. A system to
invite the students and faculty of foreign
institutes to IIT-K is also being formulated, he
added.
Sanjeev Khosla has been associated with many
educational institutions. His tenure is for three
years, having commenced on September 1,
2013. He will act as a link between IIT-K, the
alumni of the institute who are living abroad
and foreign educational institutions, Manna
said.
The office on 62, William Street is on lease for
five years, he said.
In the backdrop of IITs failing to make it to the
top 200 in the QS rankings of the world's
leading universities, IIT-Kanpur Director
Indranil Manna had yesterday alleged
corruption in the ranking process of various
such agencies and said it was more of a
"money game".
Manna alleged that the ranking process by
such agencies was based on the paying
capabilities of the institutions.
"The standard of teaching, research and job
placement are not the criteria for the ranking,
instead it is based on the paying capabilities of
the institutions. An amount of one lakh and
fifty thousand dollars needs to be paid to get a
good ranking in such lists," he claimed.
"These global rankings are more of a business
rather than based on academic performance of
institutions," he said.
Manna said a five-member committee of IIT
directors has been constituted, of which he is
part of, to look into the issue and understand
the methodology of the ranking agencies.
The report by this committee will be submitted
to the IIT council, he said.
On IIT-Kanpur ranking at 295 in the 'QS World
University Rankings', Manna said the institute
was placed on the position based on old
information provided on the its website.
"The ranking should have been after a team
would have come to IIT-Kanpur and seen how
the institute works. There have been so many
students of IIT-Kanpur who have achieved so
much on the world stage," he said.
The list released on September 10 was
dominated with US universities, with MIT
grabbing the top slot and Harvard at No 2,
pushing Britain's Cambridge University  to No
3.
The 11 Indian institutions which featured in
the list included IIT Delhi at 222, IIT Bombay
at 233, IIT Kanpur at 295, IIT Madras at 313
and IIT Kharagpur at 346.

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81-year-old IIT professor gives up water to save Ganga river

Pradesh: Environmental engineer and
former IIT professor GD Agarwal, continuing
his fast unto death to save the Ganga river for
the 102nd day on Sunday, has now given up
water too, a close aide said.
Agarwal, 81, has been on fast in the Matr
Sadan Ashram of Haridwar in Uttarakhand. He
has been demanding that the government take
steps to save the Ganga river and its ecology,
and ensure that the flow of the river water is
uninterrupted.
"He is a noted scientist and has been fasting
so many days for saving the Ganga. It is so
shameful that the government has not even
bothered to reply to his letters," said Acharya
Jitender, a close aide of the environmentalist.
Jitender said Agarwal on September 19 wrote
to President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Justice of
India P Sathasivam in this regard, but has not
yet heard from any of them.
Three members of the National Ganga River
Basin Authority - Rajendra Singh, Ravi Chopra
and Rashid Siddiqui - quit from the authority
Saturday over this and other issues.
Last year, Agarwal had called off his indefinite
fast following an assurance from the prime
minister that he would look into the matter.
A retired professor at the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) - Kanpur, Agarwal is unhappy
over the unsatisfactory and ineffective
functioning of the National Ganga River Basin
Authority (NGRBA), a central government-
constituted agency for cleaning the Ganga.
Besides, Agarwal has opposed the ongoing
construction of dams, barrages and tunnels on
the Ganga, which he says would totally
destroy the natural flow and quality of the
river water.
Agarwal was a founder-member and secretary
of the Central Pollution Control Board, the
country's premier anti-pollution authority,
and helped put together environmental
legislation in India. This is the fourth
indefinite period fast he has undertaken in the
last four years.

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Gautam Biswas takes over as IIT-Guwahati director.

Former professor of Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur Gautam Biswas  took
charge as the new director of IIT-Guwahati
by replacing Gautam Baruah.
Biswas, before joining IIT-Guwahati, was
the director of Central Mechanical
Engineering Research Institute (CMERI),
Durgapur.
Speaking to the press after assuming charge
here, Biswas said, "Our institute has the
potential to be the number one IIT in the
country and I will put in all efforts by
taking into confidence the faculty members
and the students to achieve this goal." He
noted that IITs need better student care
system for research scholars. Emphasizing
the need to focus on better research
infrastructure, Biswas said, "The PhD
programs should train them in such a way
that they develop a mindset of world
leaders in their respective fields. An
expansion of industrial problem-based
research is essential. In a renewed drive
towards industrial impact, successful and
timely execution of small and medium size
industrial problems should be attempted."
He said a synergy between teaching and
research is needed. "Postgraduate and PhD-
level courses may be given strong research
orientation and the method of evaluation
should be shifted from formal examination
to finding out solution of open ended
problems," Biswas added.According to
Biswas, IIT-Guwahati must initiate special
drives with industries and national
laboratories for interdisciplinary research
in roads and infrastructure, electric power
from gas, oil refineries and modern
manufacturing including fabrionics.

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Ravi Kumar IIT-M Alumnus , appointed Dean of Nanyang Business School, Singapore

Kumar, an alumnus of the Indian Institute
of Technology -Madras (IIT-M), has been
appointed dean of the Nanyang Business
School (NBS) in Singapore's Nanyang
Technological University (NTU), it was
announced Tuesday.
In a press release issued by the university,
Kumar, 61, has been described as "an
academic heavyweight with a good blend of
east-west experience".
Ravi Kumar comes to Singapore from the
University of South California's (USC) Marshall
Business School, where he served in several
key positions, including that of vice dean for
international programmes and vice dean for
graduate programmes.
He also served as dean of the College of
Business at the Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology while taking a two-year
leave of absence from the USC, a stint that saw
the Korean college break into the top 100 of
the Financial Times global MBA rankings.

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Chandrashekhar IIT-B Alumnus, appointed President of NASSCOM

Chandrasekhar, who has also headed the
department of information technology and put
in place the national e-governance programme,
will be Nasscom’s fourth president. Previous
presidents to head Nasscom were Dewang
Mehta and Kiran Karnik.

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Speranza IIT Delhi

Speranza IIT Delhi with Ravish Kumar on NDTV.

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