BUSINESS | News in Brief:
Facebook Makes Tech CU Credit Union of Choice | Mashruwala Joins Kovair | Doordarshan in U.S. | Energy Monitoring
Facebook Makes Tech CU Credit Union of Choice
Technology Credit Union — Tech CU — has announced that Facebook, one of the most popular and fastest-growing social networking companies in the market today, has chosen Silicon Valley-based Tech CU to be the official credit union for Facebook's expanding workforce.
“Facebook is a community-driven network, and so it makes sense that they would partner with a credit union for their employees,” said Donna Butcher, assistant vice-president of business development for Tech CU. “Credit unions are unique in that they are built on the foundation of community — they're member- owned and managed. That positions us well to partner with companies that have employees and customers who place a lot of importance on the value of peer-to-peer networks.”
Tech CU has a rich and long-standing history of serving Silicon Valley startups, boasting some of the valley's most innovative organizations as member companies. In fact, Tech CU started out in 1960 as the credit union for the employees of Fairchild Semiconductor and has continued to partner with leading technology companies, serving their financial needs and those of their employees, for more than four decades. Today, Tech CU's large high tech employer member groups include, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems and Applied Materials, as well as smaller companies such as M2 Medical and Fanfare Software Inc., a company for which Tech CU also manages the company's HSA employee accounts.
“To some degree, we're known primarily as the credit union for tech professionals in the Silicon Valley,” said Kathleen Litman, vice president of marketing for Tech CU, “but the truth is we're now open to everyone in a six county area, not just technology employees. Those six counties are Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Contra Costa and Alameda. So, the benefits of membership are now widely available.”
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Mashruwala Joins Kovair
 Milpitas, Calif.-based Kovair Software, Inc., a Development Life Cycle and IT Software Management company announced Feb. 19 that Raj Mashruwala, a veteran of Tibco Software who has been COO and executive vice president of Tibco and who spent over 10 years at Tibco since its early inception in 1997, has joined the board of Kovair as one of its directors effective immediately. “We are extremely thrilled to bring a person of Raj Mashruwala’s caliber to Kovair to guide us through our early growth phase and the sharing of his experiences in growing Tibco to over half a billion in revenues will be of tremendous value to Kovair” said Bipin Shah, CEO and chairman of the board of Kovair. At Tibco, Raj contributed to many functions including product delivery, marketing, business development and M&A activities.
Prior to Tibco, Raj was involved in three other successful start ups in Silicon Valley — Consilium Software, Media Computer Technology and YieldUp. The last two were in the semiconductor chips and equipment domains.
Raj received his graduate degree in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and his B.Tech. in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
“I am happy to join the board of Kovair which has a very unique value proposition in the SDLC and IT Management Software with its Process Workflow Engine and Integration Bus capabilities that hold tremendous market potential,” said Raj Mashruwala.
Kovair Software, Inc. is the innovation leader in global application lifecycle management solutions, supporting globally distributed multi-site application development.
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Doordarshan in U.S.
New York-based CineMaya Media Group, Inc. Feb. 13, announced the launch of its television channel, India Plus, powered by programming from India's national broadcaster, Doordarshan India. The Doordarshan India channel is currently available free to all international programming subscribers on DIRECTV.
DIRECTV is the leading satellite provider in North America serving over 16 million homes. India Plus will take over the current Doordarshan India broadcast on DIRECTV as a new channel and seek additional distribution on cable platforms.
Doordarshan is India's national television network with the largest footprint and viewership across every region of India, distributed free to air for a population of over one billion people. The Doordarshan network has more than 25 television channels that include entertainment, news, education, and regional channels all over the country. With heightened interest in India and everything Indian due to liberalization of the Indian economy, the IT revolution, increased tourism, and extraordinary success of Indians in the U.S. during the last three decades, India Plus, powered by programming from the DD channels in India, will serve as the bridge between the world's largest democracies.
India Plus will be the first Indian TV Network in the U.S. to broadcast news in Urdu, and the only channel to have news in English, along with many Indian languages including Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, and Malayalam.
A mix of top programming selected for international audiences from Doordarshan's 25 plus channels, including regional language channels, will air on India Plus, with content ranging from soap-operas, sitcoms, Bollywood films, music, current affairs, spiritual, and cultural. India Plus will also air content produced in the U.S. such as interactive interviews involving live audiences with leading personalities from various fields, success stories of prominent Indians, and community related current affairs.
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Energy Monitoring
Current State is a real-time energy use monitoring system and timer for powered devices. The Current State system is made up of two parts: a mobile application for your cell phone, which allows you to control and monitor electricity use from anywhere, and a series of plug-Ends that give you control over the products around your house.
Current State is just one of the concepts developed as part of The Greener Grass, an online platform whose mission is to connect people, and share new ideas that lead to positive change for the world. The project is online at http://thegreenergrass.org .
The Greener Grass began in 2007 as a part of Kaleidoscope, a design strategy and product development firm with headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio and offices in Detroit, Mich., and New York. Their clients include giants like Ford, Procter & Gamble, Motorola, and Johnson & Johnson, but The Greener Grass has much less corporate aims.
“Our goal is to connect people that are doing and thinking interesting, progressive things and figure out how our skills can mesh with theirs to create a better future for all of us. Life is changing faster every day. This is a way for us to learn more about how and why it’s changing,” says Finn McKenty, brand manager at Kaleidoscope.
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