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IIT-Kharagpur and State Bank of India develop a customised portal for intellectual property
Kolkata :
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and State Bank of India are collaborating to develop a customized portal for launching ‘Intellectual Property Development as a service’ (IPDaas) for Intellectual Property Rights generation. Mr. Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, Deputy Managing Director and CIO of SBI launched this project today at IIT-Kharagpur.
A symbolic submission of a patentable project was made by him in the preliminary version of IPDaas.
A MoU has already been signed between India’s largest commercial bank and the largest IIT in the country for a larger gamut of collaborations in the FinTech domain. Four departments from the Institute are engaged in this collaboration.
SBI has a history of creating innovative banking and IT solutions in-house. The IPDaas will facilitate streamlining patent applications for solutions developed internally and thereby making them available for external use through licensing. Since solutions created by SBI are based on actual challenges faced by the organization, they would prove to be useful for various bottlenecks experienced by financial institutions that too in the Indian scenario.
It will also tap the huge technical expertise of seasoned banking professionals in the organization. “It is trend-setting for an organization like SBI to move towards holistic IP creation. This would create an ecosystem for organizations in India especially in the financial sector to promote their technical expertise. With the exponentially growing economy of India such solutions will decide the quality and efficiency of financial services which would be provided to customers in India and similar other regions” said Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, Director, IIT Kharagpur.
IIT-Kharagpur will work with SBI Collaborative Innovation Centre (CIC) team. Going forward, this premier technology institute of the country with unique distinction having an IPR law school in the campus will assist in review and associated activities for a full-fledged offer of IP as a service.
Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, Deputy Managing Director and CIO of SBI visited several labs focused on research related to security solutions for mobile banking, hardware such as ATM, POS machine, IoT, intelligent asset tracking etc.
There were further discussions pertaining to commercialization of such products developed by IIT-Kharagpur through SBI.
“This is merely the beginning of what could be termed as a long-term association between SBI and IIT-Kharagpur. IIT has proposed several solutions for real challenges faced by banks in IT, user application, security, management of human resources etc. For e.g. tracking of hypothecated or lien property, prevention of erroneous usage of administrative rights, voice identification of caller, tracking of human resources and office stationary on premise and many more. Some of the solutions are already existing which needs to be customised for SBI’s requirements while some problem situations or feedback SBI will share with IIT based on which they will develop the solutions. We have found several of the solutions intriguing and further discussion would be held to collaborate on those projects,” Mahapatra added.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata / by Somdatta Basu, TNN / January 31st, 2017
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Chinese New Year celebrated in the oldest China Town in Kolkata
The first sounds you hear as you head towards Bentinck Street in Central Kolkata are those of measured thumping and co-ordinated beats of the drums. As the clamour reaches its crescendo, a giant lion mask made of paper mache, red and golden cloth springs to life and starts twisting and turning to the beats.
Welcome to India’s oldest China Town nestled in the chaotic central Kolkata which is decked up in red and golden to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Only, there are not enough members of the community left to conduct the lion dance for the 20 odd clubs that is an integral part of the New Year celebrations. Youths from other communities perform this ritual for several clubs.
“We thrived here,” said Jen Lee, 72, sitting in a tea shop near Kunga Hotel, close to Tiretti Market. “Our children played in these lanes and attended local schools. We had Chinese schools and our own newspapers. But now it’s mostly memories. In a few years we’ll all be gone or dead.”
But the dwindling number of the community did not hamper the spirit of the festivities on Saturday. The congested and dilapidated neighbourhood of Chatawala Gali, Lu Hsien Sarani and Tiretti Market where residences, small Chinese eateries and small manufacturing units hang cheek by jowl metamorphosised into an island of revelry. The entire neighbourhood is decorated in red and gold.
Members of the community dressed in their gladrags and festive fineries strutted to their local churches early in the morning. They light incense sticks and pray at temples to wish for an auspicious start to the New Year.
“The day starts with offering prayers after which friends and family visit each other. The lion dance where groups of youngsters visit households to offer their wishes and collect gits is the highlight of the day,” said Dominic Lee, a businessman and community veteran in Central Kolkata.
Other New Year’s traditions include the eating of dumplings and the lighting of fireworks on the eve of the New Year. “Lion dancing is our way of not only paying tribute to our ancient culture,” Tseng said. “It is also our chance to hold on to the past while living in the present. Since there are such few Chinese youths are left in the city, youngsters from other communities are keeping this tradition alive. This tradition will stay even if the city is left with no Chinese.”
Mohammed Imran, who was born and brought up in China Town learnt the lion dance from one of his Chinese frinds who has not migrated to Canada. “Uncles and aunties tell request me to perform the lion dance for their clubs because there are no Chinese youths in their clubs. They have all migrated,” said Imran.
Each Chinese New Year is characterised by one of 12 animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac. This is the year of the rooster and people born in the Year of the Monkey are believed to be hardworking, courageous, resourceful and talented.
Calcutta, which was home to 30,000 ethnic Chinese in 1962, has just about 3,000 today. Although Chinese food keeps soaring in popularity the affable Chinese dry-cleaners, the shoe-makers, the dentists and the tanners have all but gone.
Kolkata has the oldest China Towns in the country that exist in two clusters. The one in central Kolkata nestled between New CIT Road and BB Ganguly Street is the older of the two. The other one is in Tangra.
A revival plan that has hit a road block due to a dispute over a garbage dump on New CIT Road reflects that hardly anybody is bothered about restoring the dwindling Chinese population in Kolkata. This is the year of rooster which denotes courage, talent and hard work. In a few years to come, the slice of city will be no more.
Though the numbers of the community has been dwindling fast, Chinese New Year is an occasion when members of the community get together and greet each other.
Kung Hei Fat Choi (wishing you happiness and prosperity in the New Year)
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News / by Zeeshan Javed / TNN / January 28th, 2017