Banking and finance, government and critical infrastructure were among the most targeted sectors in India by cyber-criminals in 2018-19, according to tech major Cisco, which said that just over a quarter of these attacks cost organisations in the country upwards of USD 5 million each. “The hackers are persistent, and their campaigns are very targeted. We have found that sectors like banking and finance (20.1 pc), government (19.6 pc) and critical infrastructure (15.1 pc) were among those that continue to face the highest threat of cyber attacks,” Cisco India and SAARC director (Security Business) Vishak Raman told a news agency. He added that cybercriminals are also increasingly targeting sectors like defence (15.1 pc), IT, telecom and healthcare. “They are using a host of mechanisms like point of sale attacks to target sectors like retail, hospitality, entertainment and e-commerce.

Ransomware are used to attack public sector entities, transportation as well as banking and finance verticals,” he said. Raman cited an Asia-Pacific Security Capabilities Benchmark study conducted by Cisco that found 21 pc respondents saying cost of breach for them was between USD 5-9.9 million, while another 5 pc said it was more than USD 10 million for them. The cost of breach included loss of revenue, customers, and other costs related to the event. About 27 pc said the cost of less than USD 100,000 - an indication that while the amount involved maybe small but the volume of such attacks is growing. “Companies are now spending on not just protection but also increasingly on proactive threat hunting, more forensics,” he said.

The third largest Indian ITES firm, HCL Technologies has entered into an agreement with the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) to expand the MIHAN campus in Nagpur. Under the agreement, HCL will acquire 90 acres of land to add to the existing state-of-the-art 50-acre campus in MIHAN, Nagpur. HCL entered Nagpur in 2008 and now services global accounts. The campus, when fully operational, will employ over 8,000 personnel.

Nitin Gadkari, minister for road transport & highways of India and shipping ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises, who was present at the occasion, said “This expansion of the HCL campus in Nagpur will provide many opportunities to local talent and promote growth and development in the city.”

US-based USD 30-billion Micron Technology says it plans a four-fold increase in hiring for its research and development (R&D) operations in India to support its global manufacturing operations.

The semiconductor manufacturing company has R&D operations in Hyderabad and the facility also provides design support for various storage products, including DRAM and NAND. “Micron goes wherever the talent is. Just like, we have expanded in Singapore in recent years, there is a strong pool of talent in India as well.

As our market opportunities are growing and we need to tap the top talent pool in all major geographies,” Sanjay Mehrotra, president and chief executive officer of Micron, told a business newspaper recently. As Micron is building various capabilities and support functions at its Hyderabad operations, it seeks to hire people from top institutions in India. “Today, we have about 500 people in Hyderabad and expect to grow this strength to 2,000 over the next couple of years,” said Manish Bhatia, executive vice-president, Global Operations, Micron.

The company says it will make its Indian operations a hub for IT development and some other capabilities to manage its global manufacturing operations. “We will be expanding our engineering areas to have complete end-product development capabilities over time,” he added.

Digital payments firm Paytm says it will invest INR 7.5 billion in order to approximately double its monthly active user base on mobile to 250 million by March 2020. The company expects its Paytm Inbox service to accelerate the growth as it has garnered 27 million monthly active users and expects additional 60-70 million new customers to come on board by end of the current fiscal year.

“We are already seeing 27 million monthly active users on Paytm Inbox. Now that we are upgrading it to the next level with innovative use of the content, we hope to get around 60 to 70 million new users of the app. Our target is to have 250 million monthly active users this year,” DeepakAbbot, senior vice president, Paytm said in a statement. Paytm currently has a monthly active user base of around 140 million. The company claims that it is on its way to achieve over three billion sessions by users logging in to the application for payments and money transfers.

The platform, backed by global internet giants Alibaba and Softbank, also has plans to start content, news, short videos, and live television on its app by September this year.

Software major Tech Mahindra announced the divestment of 73.38 pc stake in its subsidiary FixStream Networks Inc to US-based Resolve Systems LLC for USD 2 million. The company said consideration received from this divestment is USD 2 million for the equity held by the company, subject to necessary adjustments. FixStream Networks Inc reported a revenue of USD 5.15 million and a loss of USD 5.19 million in 2018-19.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued draft ‘Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Per Port Transaction Charge (PPTC) and Dipping Charge (Amendment) Regulations) 2019’ seeking comments from stakeholders by August 23. In 2009, the Authority had prescribed the per port transaction charge of INR19 as ceiling for the tariff that could be charged from subscriber by the recipient operator.

The ‘dipping charge’ was kept under forbearance. Last year, the charge had been reviewed based on the actual financial and non-financial data of both the mobile number portability service providers (MNPSPs) as available for the financial year 2016-17. In January 2018, TRAI cut the rate further to INR 4, but its order was quashed by High Court of Delhi.

Therefore, TRAI has decided that the present amendment to the PPTC would come into effect from September 30 and before that it has invited the stakeholders to send their written comments on the draft regulations so that the final inputs can be corroborated, if any.“As abundant opportunity has already been given to the stakeholders to provide inputs since the issue of Consultation Paper on February 22, 2019, this may be treated as the final opportunity to give inputs, before finalisation of current consultation exercise,” TRAI said.