India Well Positioned for AI-Led Economic Transformation: Assocham
                           With over 36 percent of large financial establishments investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven technologies and 70 percent planning to embrace it, India is well poised for AI-led economic transformation, a PwC India and Assocham report said on Friday.

Yet, While AI, Machine Learning (ML) and robotics have a wide range of use cases in financial services sector, their potential has not been fully realised in India, said the joint report.

"Establishing data access frameworks and guidelines for open application interfaces from financial institutions will act as an enabler for increased adoption of AI in the sector," the findings showed.

AI can be leveraged to protect economic sectors and infrastructure such as airports and power plants that are vulnerable to attacks.

"Anomalous behaviour detection in individuals and infrastructure disruption prediction (natural/ man-made causes) powered by the use of distributed sensors and pattern recognition are examples of AI usage potential in the sector," the report added.

Along with AI applications in defence, robots can be used to perform jobs which are unsafe for humans - such as recovering explosives, detecting mines, space exploration, deep water probes, scouting for hostile territories, etc.

AI-enabled cybersecurity systems rely on historical data of cyber-attacks and apply ML to predict and detect similar threats likely to arise in the future. Having automated systems in place for monitoring and detecting risks helps to free up human agents from the time-consuming tasks of having to continually check and categorise these red flags based on their threat level, said the report.

AI-enabled assistive technology for differently abled individuals is an untapped market in India.

"AI, in combination with other emerging technologies like 3D printing and IoT, has great potential to fuel widespread availability, affordability and feasibility of innovations in smart prosthetics," said the report.

"Forming cooperative relationships with some of the front-runners in AI - such as Japan, the UK, Germany, Singapore, Israel, and China - to develop solutions that tackle social and economic challenges can aid and accelerate strategy formulation," it added.

Policy planning in AI must be aimed at creating an ecosystem that is supportive of research, innovation and commercialisation of applications.

The centre and state governments could look at providing fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for AI research/ deployment, the report advised, adding that setting up centres of excellence supporting inter-disciplinary research can further fuel AI adoption in India.

  

HP Z VR Backpack, ZBook 17, and EliteDesk 800 G3 Launched in India: Price, Specifications

HP India on Monday debuted its commercial Virtual Reality (VR) solutions and services - including the world's first professional wearable VR PC - for businesses in the country.

The PC and printing major launched HP ZBook 17 mobile workstation at a starting price of Rs. 1,65,000, HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Tower at Rs. 72,000 and the professional wearable HP Z VR backpack at Rs. 3,25,000.

"Making the most of VR technology requires a collaborative relationship between customers and partners. HP is uniting powerful commercial VR solutions to reinvent the future and create a unified portfolio of commercial VR devices," Vickram Bedi, Senior Director, Personal Systems, HP India, said in a statement.

HP Z VR Backpack solution lets users move and maintain total immersion with high-octane visual performance and docking capabilities that transform it into a manageable, powerful desktop PC experience.

Alienware 15 and 17 Gaming Laptops With Intel Core i9

Dell has revealed new upgrades to its Alienware 15 and 17 gaming laptops. The duo will now feature 8th generation Intel Core i5, i7, and i9 processors with upto 6 cores. Along with this, they will allow for overclocking for upto 5.0GHz, the first time ever on the company's most powerful laptops. In order to this, Dell claims it mechanically engineered Alienware Cryo-Tech v2.0, it's bespoke cooling solution with 50 percent thinner fan blades and a vapour chamber on the CPU to cool cores efficiently. Furthermore, users can overclock seamlessly with Alienware Command Center for laptops which also allow for 13 programmable lighting zones supAlthough an India price and release date for the Alienware 15 and 17 are yet to be announced, both the Alienware 15 and 17 ware available on Dell's website in US, China, and Europe. The Alienware 15 price is $2,400 (around Rs. 1.56 lacs) with additional configurations starting $1,450 (close to Rs. 95,000) from April 10 while the Alienware 17 price is $3,700 (approximately Rs. 2.40 lacs) with additional configurations starting $1600 (nearly Rs. 1 lac) also from April 10.porting full RGB on Alienware 15 and 17 keyboards.

Other additions include support for external desktop graphics via the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, optional 120Hz TN+WVA 400-nits display designed with Nvidia Gsync. GPU options include Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, 1070, and 1080 graphics or an AMD Radeon RX570 with 8GB DDR5.

Razer Basilisk Mouse, BlackWidow Ultimate Mechanical Keyboard Launched in India: Price, Features

Razer Basilisk customisable gaming mouse has been launched in India. The new mouse, targeted at gamers who are looking for a solution to enhance their experience for FPS gaming, is now available in the country with a price tag of Rs. 5,499. Bengaluru-based distributor Kaira Global has brought the Razer Basilisk to the Indian market with a one-year warranty. The distributor has also launched Razer BlackWidow Ultimate mechanical gaming keyboard with at a price of Rs. 9,999.

Equipped with a Razer 5G true 16,000 DPI optical sensor, the Razer Basilisk is designed to offer accuracy and precision for FPS gamers. It is also touted to have a lifespan of 50 million clicks, far more than what you can expect from a traditional optical mouse. There is up to 450 inches per second (IPS)/ 50 G acceleration and 1000Hz Ultrapolling. The mouse has a gaming-grade tactile scroll wheel with customisable resistance and includes two removable clutch (short/ long) buttons that are fully programmable and can be set for actions such as push-to-talk and item pick-up. A rubber thumb cap has also been included for players who don't want to opt for the clutch buttons. Coming back to the scroll wheel, it can be adjusted via a dial on its underside to let gamers increase or decrease its resistance. This majorly helps if a gamer wants to adjust the jump activation in a game to a preferred level of resistance.