Airtel and Tata Group/TCS announce collaboration for

Airtel and Tata Group/TCS announce collaboration for ‘Made in India’ 5G

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s premier communications solutions provider and Tata Group, today announced a strategic partnership for implementing 5G networks solutions for India.

Tata Group has developed a ‘state of the art’ O-RAN based Radio & NSA/SA Core and has integrated a totally indigenous telecom stack, leveraging the Group capabilities and that of its partners. This will be available for commercial development starting Jan 2022.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) brings its global system integration expertise and helps align the end-to-end solution to both 3GPP and O-RAN standards, as the network and equipment are increasingly embedded into software.

Airtel will pilot and deploy this indigenous solution as part of its 5G rollout plans in India and start the pilot in January 2022, as per the guidelines formulated by the Government of India.

These ‘Made in India’ 5G product and solutions are aligned to global standards, and inter-operate with other products based on standard open interfaces and those defined by the O-RAN Alliance. The 5G solutions, once commercially proven in Airtel’s diverse and brownfield network will open export opportunities for India, which is now the second largest telecom market in the world.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to join forces with the Tata Group to make India a global hub for 5G and allied technologies. With its world-class technology ecosystem and talent pool, India is well positioned to build cutting edge solutions and applications for the world. This will also provide a massive boost to India becoming an innovation and manufacturing destination.”

N. Ganapathy Subramaniam from the Tata Group/ TCS said, “As a Group, we are excited about the opportunity presented by 5G and adjacent possibilities. We are committed to building a world-class networking equipment and solutions business to address these opportunities in networking space. We are pleased to have Airtel as our customer in this initiative.”

Airtel is a Board member of the O-RAN Alliance and is committed to explore and implement O-RAN based networks in India. Earlier this year, Airtel became the first telecom company in India to demonstrate 5G over its LIVE network in city of Hyderabad. The Company has started 5G trials in major cities using spectrum allocated by the Department of Telecom.

The Tata group's telecom and media enterprises cater to the communication requirements of global business houses to SMEs, and from wholesale to home networks. Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) is a member of the O-RAN Alliance.

Tata Crucible Corporate Quiz in

 Tata Crucible Corporate Quiz, in an all new online format!

  ·         Registration begins online

·         For the first time, open for individual participation, only

·         Online Prelims, 12 cluster finals, 2 semi-finals and 1 National Final

  Tata Crucible Corporate Quiz, India’s largest and eagerly anticipated business quiz, is back in a new online format for its 17^th edition. The registrations for this edition will be open from 6^th to 20^th  This knowledge initiative by the Tata Group is all set to roll out and invite participation from the best and the brightest minds from corporates across India.

 As the world is adapting to the new normal, Tata Crucible has equally stood up to the challenge; and brought in the first ever virtual format to suit the demands of the time. Throughout its 16 years of quizzing history, Tata Crucible has consistently delivered exciting and novel formats, keeping the game ever exciting and energising. The quiz has always welcomed participation from both Tata and non-Tata corporates and this year, it will invite individual participation in place of a team, to enable easy participation in virtual form.

In this pan-India quizzing competition to be held online starting with a pan-India prelim, the country is divided into 12 clusters and after two levels of online prelims, top 12 finalists from each cluster will be invited for wild card finals out of which top 6 finalists will then compete in the 12 online cluster finals. In each of the cluster finals, top scorer will be recognised as winner and the second top scorer will be announced as runner-up. The winners and runners-up at the cluster finals will receive prizes of Rs. 35,000 /-* and Rs. 18,000/-* respectively. The winner from each of the 12 cluster finals will compete in two semi-finals and finally six winners will qualify for the national final event scheduled to be held in December 2020. The winner of the National Final will receive a grand prize of Rs. 2.5 lakhs* along with the coveted Tata Crucible Trophy. The prizes for this edition are being supported by Tata CLiQ.

 Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Atul Agrawal, Senior Vice President, Corporate Brand and Marketing, Tata Services, shared, “Tata Crucible Business Quiz has always been conducted as an on-ground experiential engagement, but given the need of the hour, we have decided to conduct the event in an online format this time with individual participation. This new online version of the quiz promises to be as energetic and intense as the ground events. Now that the quiz is being held completely online, this is an opportunity for individuals from even the remotest parts of India to participate in the quiz, which will further increase the level of competition. We are confident that this new format will be appreciated by all Tata Crucible followers and we look forward to an enthusiastic participation in the quiz this time as well.”