Tag: Tech

DST to Announce Quantum Start-ups under National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems and National Quantum Mission

Start-ups selected for support under the newly established guidelines in Quantum Technologies will be officially unveiled by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences, MoS PMO, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh at an event, scheduled for 26th November 2024.

Department of Science and Technology (DST) has established detailed guidelines to support and nurture startups in the field of quantum technologies. These comprehensive guidelines provide a structured framework for startups to access essential resources, funding opportunities, mentorship, and infrastructure support, empowering them to accelerate innovation and contribute to India’s quantum ecosystem.

The unveiling of the startups by the Union Minister, who will be the Chief Guest for the occasion will showcase India’s growing prowess in quantum research, development, and commercialization.

A Call for Proposals was launched earlier this year by the I-HUB Quantum Technology Foundation, a Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) established at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS). The response from start-ups across the nation showcased the increasing interest in quantum technologies and the potential for ground-breaking advancements.

The selected start-ups, representing cutting-edge innovation across diverse domains such as quantum communication, computing, sensing, and materials, were chosen through a rigorous evaluation process. These pioneering ventures are poised to contribute significantly to India’s quantum ecosystem, addressing critical technological challenges and driving economic growth.

With the growing momentum in India’s start-up ecosystem, the National Quantum Mission is dedicated to nurturing ventures in quantum technology, and propelling the nation toward world-wide excellence in this transformative field.

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How to prepare for a technical interview | 6 Topics to prepare for your Interview

How to prepare for a technical interview

How to prepare for a technical interview which will help you to get placed? The syllabus of computer science is very vast in that case Preparation tips for Technical Interviews will definitely help you to focus on the target topics. It is impossible to cover every topic in depth especially when you have less time left for the interview. If you start covering everything little by little and with the correct strategy, you can gain what most students can lack.

Please take reference fromhttps://www.freecodecamp.org/news/interviewing-prep-tips-and-tricks/

Qualifying technical round is not tough and if done with proper planning, everything can be achieved. Let us look at the most important topics:

6 Topics to prepare for your Interview:

Interview Image

  1. C- Programming:

C-Programming is a very basic programming language to start coding.  Mostly it is taught in 1st year of your college. It can be an advantage if you have already covered this language during your schooling and then college provides you enough time to revise the topics. But if you are doing it for that first time do not worry it is still not late to get started with C programming.

 

Where should you start learning C programming:

I myself started learning C programming when I took admission in an engineering college, and this is how I started:

  • C programming tutorials on Naresh IT channel with instructor Shriniwas on Youtube.
  • C programming with Sourabh Shukla on Youtube.
  • Many practice question sites are better, to begin with.
  • Online portals like Sololearn, Geekforgeek are awesome with their educational material.

These resources really helped me, and I will be glad if you too can be helped with these.

C Programming Interview questions: 

  • Chances of mostly tricky questions to check how and what logic will you apply for the real-world problem.
  • Don’t forget to revise basic concepts and all the definitions, the inventor name, loop, if-else, pointers, strings, recursion, and application along with Tower of Hanoi problems.
  • Also, check for Interview Questions in C https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/cprogramming_interview_questions.htm

  1. Data Structures:

    1. This is the most important area where you can expect a guaranteed question,
    2. Algorithms like Sorting, Time and Space Complexities of algorithms.
    3. Dynamic Allocation of Memoryusing malloc( ) and calloc( ) functions.
    4. Tree traversals
    5. Stacks and Queues and their operations and applications.
    6. Linked lists and their Operations performed(ex: insertion, deletion, searching).

Algorithms:

  1. Dynamic Programming and usage of it in various problem statements. (ex: Travelling salesperson,0/1 Knapsack, etc).
  2. Calculation of Time and Space Complexitiesof algorithms.
  3. Sorting
  4. Databases:

Mainly DBMS is taught in the 2nd year or after they cover C Programming & Data Structure. SQL (or Oracle) will help you to generate a large database along with queries.

What topics are important in DBMS:

  • DDL, DML, DCL, and TCL commands.
  • SQL constraints like JOIN, NOT NULL, UNIQUE, CHECK.
  • NORMALIZATION (1 NF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF, 4NF, 5NF)
  • All the keys: primary key, candidate key, super key, and foreign key.
  • Transaction and its types i.e ACID properties.
  • Also, don’t forget to cover the basic interview question of DBMS from google and you can cover them from the trusted education websites.

 

  1. Computer Networks:

  • Also called Data Communications. Pure theoretical topics which discuss many networking techniques.
  • OSI model and TCP/IP models.
  • IPV4, IPV6, TCP, UDP, Routers, Modems, knowledge about.

 

  1. Operating Systems:

This could increase your confidence as most of the Operating system topics are theoretical and you can easily cover them all by hand in less than a week.

  • The basic definition of OS, advantages, application, types, etc.
  • All scheduling algorithms PROCESS and CPU scheduling algorithms.
  • MEMORY MANAGEMENT
  • DEADLOCK, deadlock prevention, deadlock avoidance, deadlock ignorance, and deadlock detection & recovery
  • SYSTEM CALLS

 

  1. Java(J2SE and J2EE):

  • Difference between C++ and Java.
  • OOPS concepts
  • Types of Overloading.
  • Exception Handling and Multi-tasking (Multiprocessing & Multi-Threading).
  • Collection framework.
  • Servlets and JSP’s.
  • Applet

Revise these all topics as mentioned also check the resources through youtube and many helpful education sites which are doing great in giving students ease to easily read the topics online without notes.

 

Preparation tips for Technical Interview

These tips helped me so much and I will want you to follow these steps to get well with your topics:

  • Don’t wait for last-minute study for placement rather cover the topic together with your university.
  • Make notes, this is key to success point, how you understand your handwritten notes, you can never understand the same way from any other resource.
  • Keep revising topics in your semester break that will build your concepts more and will make it easy for you in your 4th year of college.
  • If you are unclear with any topic, don’t wait for the instructor to teach you or visit many sites offering you all the materials for free. They are: Geeksforgeeks, Sololearn, Tutorialspoint, Javapoint, etc

If still you remain unclear then watch tutorials from youtube on the topic you are interested in. I hope this helps you, comment below for any further queries/doubt will be happy to help you.

All the Best!

Creating a Pandemic-proof Infrastructure

During the last few years, the world saw a crisis that shook every aspect of human life. A crisis that comes once in many decades. Almost every country experienced a complete lockdown at some point in time. Many countries with previously thought-to-be world-class health-care systems have also been tried, pushed to the limit, and in some respects found wanting. The pandemic took all countries by surprise and the discussion on appropriate national and global strategies is very diverse. The COVID-19 epidemic has demonstrated what is at risk, upending the lives of families worldwide. Millions of people have died, and a generation of kids has experienced a learning catastrophe.

The two years of the pandemic highlighted the current inadequacies of our healthcare delivery system and the need for urgent improvisation. The two years have seen us go through harrowing times—patients died for want of hospital beds and oxygen; the ventilator supply ran dry; high infections led to a severe manpower crunch at hospitals; there were not enough vaccines available then. Our healthcare system had crumbled under pressure, and our frontline workers, both in public and private hospitals, had burned themselves out. And now with cases rising, there is fear of a return to the past among healthcare workers.

Although the pandemic has eased, the virus is still alive and mutating and more pandemics are expected to follow. In the wake of this scenario, it is important for the world community to better equip ourselves to tackle such situations in the future. It is the moment that we realise the importance and need to strengthen healthcare infrastructure globally. It is time to work on making a pandemic-proof healthcare system for the future. Below are the areas that need to be focused on:

  • ·         Curative services – there is a need for the expansion of telemedicine from triage, diagnosis, and follow-up services covering all conditions (acute to chronic). Making institutions adapt and become centres of knowledge dissemination- telemedicine and all possibilities of e- and m-health and provide knowledge to people at home, on what symptoms to look out for, where to test, how to self-care, etc for not only Covid-19 but for other conditions too.
  • ·         Improve primary health care – Better primary health care will help us protect against future pandemics. Improving primary health care includes recruiting, training, and prioritising healthcare workers, and establishing effective surveillance and response systems, building confidence in health services through community outreach.
  • ·         Improve logistics and supply – There are a lot of logistics that are needed in a healthcare system. Some examples include masks, gloves, PPEs, disinfectants, etc. Apart from there’s also the supply of syringes and the cold chain storage that’s been necessary to make sure that the vaccines are stored at the proper temperature and don’t go to waste.  Increased investments in this type of infrastructure will assist to guarantee that communities obtain the immunizations they require while also protecting them from future outbreaks.
  • ·         Promotive and preventive healthcare services – The pandemic has demonstrated that having an underlying condition like diabetes, hypertension or obesity predisposes one to complications, long hospital stays, and mortality. Because of all these reasons, COVID-19 has been categorised as a syndemic rather than a pandemic. It is necessary to provide preventive and promotive health services like boosting one’s immune system through diet, exercise, and supplements, in different formats, online, face-to-face, or through home visits.
  • ·         Mental health services – Mental health issues during the pandemic are threatening to become the next pandemic. Stress and mental health issues related to lockdowns affect everyone but tend to affect the weaker segments of society more severely. It is necessary to create awareness about mental health and make mental health services available, accessible, and affordable to all.

It is true that we need to build pandemic-proof health infrastructure. But does Covid-19 expose our health sector only or show us the reality of other aspects also? Working only on health will not be sufficient. We also need to improve our social, educational and political infrastructure. The world saw a huge dropout of students because of online classes during pandemic. Some of the major reasons given for dropping are fairly obvious: technology problems, lack of support, poorly designed courses, and technologically inexperienced educators. This demands due consideration and commitment. The epidemic has impacted numerous nations’ governmental and political systems, resulting in declarations of emergency, suspensions of legislative activity, isolation or death of multiple lawmakers, and postponing of elections owing to worries of viral transmission.Furthermore, in certain areas, the epidemic has posed various problems to democracy, causing it to be weakened and harmed. Hence, building a pandemic-proof political infrastructure will not only ensure an efficient response to tackle the crisis but also provide basic institutional support to the nation and to the world as a whole.

This is a unique moment where we have an opportunity to learn from this pandemic and prevent others in the future. The legacy of COVID-19 mustn’t be one of disruption and disparity, but instead a moment of monumental change.

Big tech companies announced layoff for more than 70000 employees.

Many tech firms have announced layoffs for more than 70000 employees in the last year. And the names include major tech giants like Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Google, and others, which are the dream company for millions of people to work with. So, the question arises what is the actual meaning of layoff? A layoff is a termination of employment initiated by the employer for reasons other than the actual work performance. In simple terms, it is the downsizing of an organization’s workforce by suspension or permanent termination of a worker or group of workers.

Let’s take a view at some of the biggest layoffs announced:

Amazon, the world’s largest online retail platform has announced 18000 layoffs.

Google’s parent company Alphabet announced a layoff for 12000 of its employees.

Meta announced 11000 layoffs.

Microsoft announced a layoff of 10000 employees.

Salesforce announced a 10% job cut which will affect around 8000 employees.

Elon Musk owned social media handle Twitter has laid off 3700 employees.

These firms and many other firms even from the non-tech field will further announce more such layoffs in the coming months. And the reasons stated for such a massive termination by companies include over-hiring in the past 2 years from 2020 to 2022, the number of job opportunities has skyrocketed. Many companies increased the number of people in the sector to handle the many projects. But post pandemic, the demand for tech services have been seen a downward turn and companies found themselves in a situation to reduce their operating cost and they see layoff as a solution. Also, another major reason is the alarming recession. As with the mark of the new year 2023, World Bank and IMF have published reports stating that the chances of many economies heading toward recession are high. Recession will lead to low aggregate demand and result in low revenue for companies. So, companies in order to reduce their costs so as to be profitable are looking for laying off their employees.

BharOS : India's indigenous mobile Operating System.

With the advent of the smartphone era, majorly two OS (Operating System) which are Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS have been dominating the market. India has a population of more than 140 crore people and smartphone users account for more than 75 crores and we are dependent on the big tech giants for OS services. Also, the problem with renowned names such as android and iOS is that they come primarily with pre-installed apps and users have limited alternatives to switch to, which creates the issue with user privacy. So, there is a need for our own indigenous OS for Indian smartphone users. An IIT Madras Incubated organization has developed BharOS, a made in India Operating System.

BharOS is an AOSP (Android Open Source Project) Operating System based on the Linux kernel. It is developed by JandKops (JandK Operations Private Limited), which is a non-profit organization incubated at Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

BharOS is basically a really clean fork of AOSP that provides an NDA (No Default Apps) setting, which means that users do not have to keep or use pre-installed apps in this mobile operating system. NDA is key as many pre-installed apps that currently ship with other smartphones can slow down the device or take a toll on battery life by acting as bloatware. Going with an NDA design for BharOS was intentional as it will let users have more control over the apps on their mobile phones based on the user’s trust in the app and the kind of data they store on their phone.

BharOS also provides access to a Private App Store Service called PASS, which is a list of apps that have been thoroughly vetted and have been verified to comply with businesses’ privacy and security needs.

BharOS would offer NOTA (Native Over the Air) updates, meaning that security updates and bug fixes will be automatically installed rather than users having to check for updates and implement them on their own.

As of now, BharOS is not rolled out for public use but developers claimed that they have given access to the OS to certain organizations with stringent privacy and security requirement. BharOS developers claim that BharOS is better than both Android and iOS in terms of features and security. On top of that, they also claim that BharOS could even improve the battery life of the device. It will also allow users to install apps of their interest and will ship with an India-based app store. BharOS is a contribution towards the idea of a self-reliant India or ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ by creating a secure OS environment for India-based users.

Know about TRAI's proposal of displaying name with phone number.

In November last year, TRAI floated a consultation paper seeking comments about the potential introduction of Caller Name Presentation (CNAP).

The feature will allow users to know the identity of the person calling them. The basic idea is that if people are aware of the person who is calling them, they can make an informed choice about those calls. At the same time, such a feature could potentially help in curbing harassment and other spam calls.

The proposal CNAP will also be difficult to execute from a technical perspective given that a number of phones in the Indian market may not be able to support it, telcos have said.

Meanwhile, Truecaller, which already offers a similar service albeit through a crowdsourcing model has said since several people purchase SIM cards using forged identity cards, TRAI’s proposal to use SIM registration data to display callers’ names might be fraught with inaccuracies since “the identity of the actual user of a mobile number may not be the same as the subscriber”.

By 2027, India could assemble 1 in 2 Iphone according to a report.

India is projected to assemble up to 50 per cent of Apple’s iPhones by 2027, which will be a significant increase from the current rate of less than five per cent. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, it will bring India’s level of production in line with that of mainland China.

India could produce one in two of the world’s iPhones by 2027 as compared to the current percentage which stands at less than 5 percent, as per a latest  forecast by Luke Lin.

Here Luke Lin is an analyst at the research unit of Taiwan’s DigiTimes newspaper, in the South China Morning Post.

It appears that this  forecast is more aggressive than JPMorgan’s earlier prediction that India would assemble 25 percent of total Apple iPhones worldwide by 2025.

India to become a hub of drone technology.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur this week said that India will become a hub of drone technology and the country will require at least 1 lakh drone pilots by next year. He was speaking at the gathering after flagging of the ‘Drone Yatra 2.0’, in Chennai.

Stating that India will require at least 1 lakh pilots in 2023, he said that each pilot will earn at least Rs 50-80 thousand a month. “If you take the Conservative Average even Rs 50,000 × 1 lakh youth × 12 months = Rs. 6000 crores a year worth employment could be created in the Drone sector,” he said

Apart from this, Industries and Government agencies which use Drones will also be impacted. He appreciated the that Garuda Aerospace’s plan to make one lakh ‘Made in India’ drones in the next two years.

Garuda’s Drone Skilling & Training Conference which is to be conducted in 775 districts across the country hopes to reach 10 lakh Youth. With an aim to train 1 lakh Youth to significantly impact not just the Drone ecosystem or generate employment for Youth, but hopes to create a massive impact in agriculture, mining, government departments and Other industries.

While noting that currently there are over 200 drone start-ups operating in the country, the minister said that this number will increase to generate lakhs of new job opportunities for the youth.

Indian telecom sector to hire staffs laid off by big tech MNCs.

According a report by Economics Times : The Indian telecom eco-system could absorb up to 30% of the workforce laid off at the big tech firms and who chose to return to India. These include employees across technical and service profiles, say staffing experts.

Companies like Meta, Amazon, Twitter, Microsoft and Stripe among many others have laid off employees and rationalised their employee base. According to estimates by TeamLease, over 62,000 employees have received the pink slip in 2022.

While employees at tech firms are facing headwinds in light of the pink slips being dealt out, the Indian telecom eco-system has increased its hiring over the past few quarters in light of the 5G rollout.

Given the hiring impetus that the telecom sector is seeing, one would expect it to absorb a majority of the employees laid off. However, there is only so much of a skill overlap between the workforce being laid off, and the requirement at the telecom companies say experts.

How roll out of 5g services will help Indian economy?

The transition to 5G will unlock new use cases and revenue streams through innovative business models. It will bolster the startup ecosystem and enable India to be an R&D hub for 5G technology and use cases. Developing 5G applications is likely to have a huge impact across industries.

In India, the engineering/advanced manufacturing segment offers the largest 5G/IoT opportunity. Multiple use cases exist in this segment with benefits of increased efficiency, productivity, better safety standards, and highly efficient production. In healthcare, 5G’s benefits can immediately be realized in home-based care and connected hospital devices as 5G facilitates real-time data transfer.

The Indian M&E sector is transitioning from passive consumption to participative consumption fueled by the popularity of immersive technologies such as AR and VR, networked gaming, and interactive game shows. 5G may help accelerate this trend and completely transform the consumer experience.

Further, the advent of 5G may significantly enhance connected car features and usher in the age of autonomous vehicles (AV) in India.

India will witness a rise in gamers by 2025.

The number of Indian gamers is expanding at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% and is expected to jump to 700 million in FY25 compared with 507 million in 2021, said a new report by Dentsu titled Gaming Report India 2022 – For the Game.

The report said that 46% of gamers in India are women and that overall, ‘Real Money Game’ revenues currently constitute 57% of market size but future growth is projected to be driven by in-app purchases growing at a 34% CAGR. There were 120 million paying users in FY22, which represents a 24% conversion rate.

Anita Kotwani, CEO, Carat India & lead at Dentsu Gaming, said, “Gaming’s growing cultural impact, combined with the promise of the metaverse, has generated endless opportunities for advertisers. With the meteoric expansion of esports and streaming platforms, gaming has shifted from solitary play to spectator sport. Gaming platforms are now the main avenue for social connections and self-expression. One cannot follow the cookie-cutter approach anymore given the fluidity & dynamism of the industry.”

NEOM : the futuristic sci-fi city of Saudi Arabia.

With plans under way to build Saudi Arabia’s smart city Neom, it is set to be a place in the desert unlike anything else on Earth.

NEOM is being called as what ‘New Future might look like’ by Saudi Arabia. Neom is a portmanteau of the Greek word neos. NEOM is being built on the Red Sea in northwest Saudi Arabia. It can be imagined as a place where entrepreneurship and innovation would frame the course for this New Future. The city is being marketed as a new model for sustainable living, working and prospering. Saudi officials describe it as “the world’s most ambitious project.”

Unveiling the project, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the 170-kilometre coastal strip in the north-west of the country would be free of cars and streets and have zero carbon emissions.

The smart city will be powered entirely by clean energy, a major step in Saudi Arabia’s shift away from an oil-based economy.

The Line is to be built in Neom and will be home to nine million people, who will live in interconnected societies run by artificial intelligence designed to coexist with nature, with excavation on this massive project having now started.

Confronting the traffic, pollution and infrastructure challenges that overshadow urban life in conventional cities, this futuristic development will prioritise walkability, clean energy and technology to create a new way of living.

ISRO's new achievement : launches 36 satellite for UK based OneWeb.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully deployed the latest batch of 36 satellites for satellite operator OneWeb, aboard its heavyweight configuration Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)-Mk.III rocket. The launch marked the first commercial mission that used ISRO’s GSLV, also known as the Launch Vehicle Mark III (LVM3).

The collaboration is a result of ISRO’s commercial arm NewSpace India Limited’s two service contracts, signed with One Web for launching low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband communication satellites. ISRO said that as part of the contract, 36 satellites will be placed into orbit by one LVM3, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The mission marked the second launch of the year for OneWeb, backed by Bharti Enterprises, after the conflict in Ukraine disrupted the UK operator’s plan for completing its satellite launches this year. Prior to the Ukraine-Russia war, OneWeb was using Russia’s central space agency Roscosmos’ commercial launch services through its Soyuz rockets.

However, amid geopolitical sanctions imposed on Russia by nations including the UK, erstwhile Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said that the OneWeb satellites would not be released back to the company — unless the UK government ceded to the nation’s demand of removing the sanctions.

IT employees are rewarded with double digit salary hike before the festive season.

As per a report by brokerage and research firm Elara Capital, companies like Coforge, L&T Infotech (LTI) and Persistent Systems (PSYS) hiked salaries in double-digits in FY22. Reportedly, this is the maximum hike that they have given in 4 years.

The same hike trend is been observed among employees of all major IT companies such as Infosys, HCL, TCS and other big IT corporations, and it was seen as a good move considering the pandemic hit stagnant income of the employees and much more relief from the dark clouds of spiking inflation all around.

In FY22, the median wage rise was 2.4x five-year average wage increase for midcap Indian IT companies as acute supply-side strain necessitated roll-out of substantial salary hikes.

As compared to the previous four years, the employee growth has exceeded the median salary growth which implies faster fresher addition (pyramid flattening).

As demand for services such as cloud-computing, digital payment infrastructure, cybersecurity and cryptocurrency transactions surged, employers paid top compensation to lure skilled workers.

Further, Double digit salary hikes are here to stay for at least another year. The Salary Increase Survey report by AON says that Indian companies are expected to boost average salaries by at least 10.4% in 2023, a tad lower than the 10.6% given in 2022 so far.

The average salary hikes in percentage terms for 2022 is highest in India as compared with other big countries, including the USA, the UK and Japan, the report said.

What does 'Moonlighting' mean?

The majority of IT firms have strengthened their opposition to moonlighting and threatened to fire employees who are found to be working two jobs. Moonlighting could be viewed as unfair competition if an employee’s contract stipulates non-compete restrictions and exclusive employment.

Significant IT business, Infosys, has cautioned its employees against accepting a second job without first informing the employer. Infosys recently reminded all of its employees to study their employment contracts before accepting a different job in one of the letters sent to staff members by the HR department. In fact, the employer also issued a warning that if an employee accepted a second job during or after working hours, they risked being fired. The term that IT corporates uses to describe this practice is ‘moonlighting’.

But what is moonlighting?

Moonlighting means taking up a second job or multiple other work assignments apart from one’s full-time job. The practice of working for other organisation while committing oneself to one’s primary workplace, typically without the employer’s knowledge, is termed as ‘moonlighting’. Companies have opposed the practice, saying that employees doing multiple jobs can impact their productivity.

Moonlighting has become a topic of debate in the IT industry as working from home became the normal norm during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is believed to have led to a rise in dual employment.

Businesses disagree with the approach, claiming that having staff perform numerous tasks can reduce productivity. As working from home became the norm during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is thought to have caused an increase in dual employment, moonlighting has come under discussion in the IT industry.