The Indian airline's new system, installed this summer at Hyderabad Airport, enables passengers to automatically receive a boarding pass as soon as they arrive at the airport, or to tap their phone against an RFID-tagged sign to access that pass.

SAP SE has signed a co-innovation agreement with APWorks, a subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space GmbH.

Wal-Mart is one of the nation's largest private energy consumers, having to power millions of square feet of store space. So when the Obama administration wanted to cut energy bills for the Air Force - which consumes more energy than any other U.S. agency - it turned to the person who had led similar efforts at Wal-Mart for six years.

It used to be that the only way to get to outer space was through the government.