CarDekho’s Gaadi Forays into Southern Market with “12 New Stores in Bengaluru”

Gaadi by CarDekho, a retail auction model for pre-owned cars, has announced its foray in southern India with launch of twelve stores in Bengaluru. Better known as the silicon valley of India, Bengaluru is a magnet for the millennials as well as the urban population, creating the perfect opportunity for Gaadi to expand its market.

The brand has already witnessed phenomenal success within its first quarter with sale of over 900 cars across the 15 stores in Delhi – NCR. The brand is steadily building its trust with the audience as a dependable, hassle-free medium to sell their cars. The intend of the team is to scale the entire country with nearly 200 stores in markets including Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai etc. The USP of Gaadi is to provide effortless vehicle selling experience to the customers with optimum resale value for their cars along with Free RC transfer, Loan closure assistance, Instant money transfer, and scientific car inspection at their outlets.

According to a research by McKinsey, there is continued growth in the used-car segment with India projected to be the 3rd largest market for used-cars by 2021. To add on to it, escalating concerns about the life term of cars, a paradigm shift in emissions and safety norms has also influenced consumers to waver from purchasing new cars. Cementing this trend, industry organization, SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers), states that market growth is anticipated to be driven by rising penetration of online platforms such as Gaadi, that enables used car dealers to boost their reach to a larger audience and considering that on an average there are 7,000-8,000 cars being sold each month in Bangalore makes it the perfect market to tap.

Commenting on the move, Vibhor Sahare, CEO, and Co-founder at Gaadi mentioned, “It gives me immense pleasure to venture into a new market. This step is indicative of our growth and we are confident that the stores in Bengaluru will witness incredible success and encourage expansion to other cities. Bengaluru has the ideal combination of perfect target audience and market opportunity for us and we expect great customer response from the city”.

Collaborative Design and Advanced Construction Mgt Results in Significant Savings on Large-Scale Expressway Project

The CNY 23.6 billion Lipu-Yulin Expressway will run through Guilin, Guigang, and Yulin in Guangxi province and is an important section of G59, China’s national expressway network. Guangxi Transportation Design Group Co., Ltd., is responsible for the overall design and coordination of the project, as well as providing technical support for the construction unit. The large-scale project, which requires complex and comprehensive management, faces many challenges including long distances, large amounts of land requisition and demolition, and citizen-control factors that need to be considered in the planning phase. The main line of the project is 263.1 kilometers long and requires exceptional communication and coordination among teams, multiple disciplines, and public entities.

The expressway design includes several technically complex bridges, such as the Xiangsizhou Bridge, with a span of 450 meters and the largest-span, cable-stayed bridge in Guangxi province, and the Pingnansan Bridge, the largest span-arch bridge in the world under construction, with a span of 575 meters. The expressway also includes super-long tunnels, such as the Wenwei Tunnel, which runs 4,705 meters and is located in mountainous regions with rough terrain and poor geological conditions.

The BIM design team was required to determine how to build a full-factor scenario project model quickly and optimize the route plan. The team depended on Bentley software to enable the design, collaboration, and management across all teams while meeting contractual-scheduled requirements. Project goals include saving design time by 20 percent, limiting deviation between target cost and actual cost to 2 percent, and achieving a profit margin of 5 percent.

The BIM team used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in combination with ContextCapture to create large-scale, reality meshes for the project. The models were used to perform 3D analysis to ensure the safety clearance of equipment and structures and conduct site planning and optimize construction site space utilization to reach 95 percent optimization. Using OpenRoads, the team created 3D models for planning construction sites and temporary sites, arranging service areas, and selecting spoil ground to avoid wasting land resources, which saved land use by 5 percent and avoided 4,100 square meters of building demolition.

MicroStation was used to perform 3D parametric modeling, with ProStructures used to accurately model the steel structures; these applications identified problems and reduced design errors design rework to save 15 working days. OpenRoads and OpenBridge were used to perform 3D design of roads, bridges, and tunnels to quickly and accurately locate the structures, perform parametric modeling, and improve design efficiency by more than 200 percent. BIM 5D construction management was achieved using the project’s electronic sandbox system based on MicroStation to manage 3D content while combining the data with a web GIS to provide information browsing and sharing. ProjectWise was used to provide collaborative design across all parties and professions and reduced communication costs by CNY 400,000.

Combining Bentley technology with BIM methodologies, the design team was able to achieve economic savings as well as reduce staff input of design and construction management by 10 percent, which reduced resource hours by 30 percent and greatly improved the quality of construction, laying the foundation for timely and high-quality project completion.

Changhai Wang, BIM center director, Guangxi Communications Design Group Co., Ltd., said, “Using Bentley’s project team collaboration system leveraging ProjectWise, improved information sharing and communication among team members. Having the most updated information at our fingertips helped us reduce the number of meeting by 15 times and communication and collaboration costs by more than CNY 400,000.”

First-Ever Survey on ‘What India Wants’: Shine.com Appraisal 2019

Shine.com, India’s 2nd largest job portal, recently conducted a first-of-its-kind appraisal survey focusing on the expectations of employees instead of a top-down HR or company led perspective. The survey was conducted across working professionals from various industries including IT, Banking and Finance, Industrial products, education/training, FMCG etc.

In a comparison between expectations among employees in metro cities, the leading job search platform found some interesting insights. It was revealed that professionals working in cities such as Mumbai, Pune and Chennai are looking for higher pay hikes, above 20% as compared to their counterparts in other metros like Delhi-NCR and Bangalore, wherein people expect lower hikes in salaries – between 0-10 percent. The Survey found that in the Financial Capital – Mumbai almost 37% of people are expecting increment above 20%, while in Pune and Chennai, the number is 36% and 38% respectively. Bangalore, which is referred to as the Silicon Valley of India, observed that 21% of people expecting appraisals in the range of up to 10% hike, while the country’s capital – Delhi NCR saw the trend of 20% of people expecting increments on the lower side.

Appraisal sentiment in Bangalore: High competition; low expectation

To get a holistic view of the overall employee sentiment in terms of salary hikes, Shine.com also mapped the lowest expectations across sectors and cities. Bangalore emerged as one of the least demanding cities in terms of pay hikes, as one-fifth of all respondents in the city mentioned that they would be satisfied with up to 10% increment. Sectors including BFSI, IT and BPOs, that already offer high packages to employees are the ones driving these low expectations. As there is an abundance of talent in the city, especially in the IT and e-commerce sectors, it is no surprise that professionals are expecting lower appraisals.

Surprisingly, although Bangalore has been India’s IT hub for years, its e-commerce sector is expecting much lower appraisals as compared to Delhi. While over 46%  of e-commerce sector employees in Bangalore are only expecting an average growth of 11-15%, Delhi NCR (Gurgaon) seems to be emerging as a new hub for E-commerce as appraisal sentiment is high with over 1/3rd professionals expecting a bumper hike of over 20%.

Auto and Education bolster appraisal sentiment in Mumbai and Pune

Shine.com further revealed interesting developments in Mumbai and Pune where employees in Education/Training and the Automobile sector are expecting hikes on the higher side. While a whopping 62% of employees in Mumbai are looking for over 20% appraisal in the Education/Training sector, around 56% in Auto are eyeing the same. Further, 48% of employees in the Auto sector and 38% in the Education/Training sector are looking for more than 20% hike in Pune. These two cities, which are witnessing robust growth across most sectors have collectively portrayed the highest appraisal sentiment in the country.

Sector-wise analysis: BFSI and BPO/KPO/ITES expectations witness an uptick

A sector-wise analysis of appraisal expectations revealed that the highest appraisal sentiment is being carried by professionals the BFSI and BPO/KPO/ITES sectors with over 35% of employees in these sectors expecting more than 20% increment. With these sectors witnessing robust growth on the back of the tech advancement and integration, such high expectations come as no surprise.

Speaking on the survey, Zairus Master, CEO, Shine.com said, “It is interesting to note the variance in employee expectations across different metro cities and across sectors. While employee sentiments are high across most sectors, it is a given that not all organizations will be able to meet these expectations. At Shine.com, we are gearing up for an increase in active job seekers on the portal post the appraisal season. As always, we will strive to match them with the perfect job according to their skills and expectations and also offer a chance to upskill and enable long term career growth for them through our Shine Learning platform.

The respondents of the survey were majorly located in leading metro cities including Mumbai (19.49%), Delhi/NCR (20.89%), Bangalore (20.08%), Hyderabad (16.43%), Pune (9.34%) and Chennai (11.64%). The aforementioned findings call for organizations to invest an increased amount of funds towards their human resources in order to retain top talent over the years to come.

The Food Ordering Habits of Emerging India: Zomato Annual Report

India’s favourite food app, Zomato, recently published its Annual Report FY19 highlighting its performance over the last year and its ambitions to craft a future where everyone has easy access to fresh, clean and affordable food outside the home. One of the key drivers of this future is its food delivery business which grew from 15 cities to 213 cities in India within a year. Now that tier II, III and even tier V cities are ordering food online, what’s interesting to notice are the unique food ordering habits across India.

Here are some interesting nibbles on user behaviour from the emerging regions of India-Map

Highlights:

·         A Zomato delivery roved across the Brahmaputra River on a boat, in the city of Guwahati, to deliver Chicken Hakka Noodles. It took around 1.5 hours in total to make the delivery
·         70% of Zomato’s regular users in Kolhapur had never tried food delivery in their life (even over a phone call), and Zomato was the first food delivery experience of their lives
·         Tuni, a small town in Andhra Pradesh is the smallest emerging city in food delivery with the highest number of cashless payments
·         Abohar in Punjab was the first city to cross 1,000 orders on the day of launch and has been clocking 2,000 orders a day since then
·         An order worth a whopping ₹1,84,760 was delivered in 415 boxes in Jaipur, and another massive food order was placed by a user in Lucknow worth ₹16,800.
·         Indore requests more midnight meals than Mumbai
·         Kota is the largest emerging city in food delivery
·         Bhagalpur and Gaya have more delivery partners delivering food on cycles than on bikes.
·         Vijayawada is most likely to get breakfast than any other city

Something interesting brewing in Hyderabad (it is too interesting to miss!)

Over 100 Zomato delivery partners waiting to pick up their assignments at the Bawarchi restaurant in Hyderabad. Bawarchi typically receives ~2,000 orders a day from Zomato.

Zomato currently lists over 1 lakh restaurants in India and has a last mile delivery fleet of 180,000 partners. Globally, the food tech giant is present in over 10,000 cities with over 1.4 million active restaurants on the platform.

Making Creativity Affordable & Accessible: Itsy Bitsy Launches 10-Day Summer Mega Sale

Celebrating the 2019 summer in a different way, India’s largest arts, crafts and hobby megastore Itsy Bitsy is launching Summer Mega Sale on its online e-retail platform www.itsybitsy.in from April 3 to April 14, 2019.

The most affordable and accessible Summer Mega Sale will be e-retailing more than 10,000 products with a discount ranging from 50% to 80% on art supplies, general and kids' craft, paper crafting, mixed media, soap making, candle making, needle craft and a whole lot more.

What’s in it for you

To keep kids creatively engaged for hours during summer, the sale will have a huge variety of art supplies, chalk paints and acrylic paints at 10% off.
There is an offer up to 20% on scrapbooking and card making materials and up to 50% off on Itsy Bitsy’s home brand, Little Birdie’s handmade flowers and embellishments.

Honda Puts India First Launches Social Activism Movement - #ActivIndia

India’s most trusted two-wheeler brand, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd, today announced its biggest social activism movement #ActivIndia.

Honda is spearheading the mission to create meaningful difference in society fuelled by citizen partnership. #ActivIndia ignites every Indian to exercise their most important form of self-expression - their right to vote.

With lack of transportation often being a hurdle in the world’s biggest democratic process, Honda proposes a fresh solution. Honda is asking every two-wheeler rider to pledge that #KoiSeatNaJayeKhali (no seat should go empty). Ensure that your pillion seat doesn’t go empty when you ride to vote. Ride with your friend, relative, neighbour etc. on pillion & ensure every two-wheeler rides two votes to the polling booth!

Commenting on Honda’s biggest social initiative, Mr. Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice President, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said “As a responsible corporate, Honda has always looked beyond business to contribute in empowering India, be it through our various CSR initiatives or even road safety commitment. After gaining the trust of India, Honda is now sparking positive social change and striving to evolve India into #ActivIndia. Together let’s make each citizen socially aware, more responsible and drive the change. Just give a missed call on 9870500111 and support the #ActivIndia movement by taking a pledge to vote.”

Starting 6th April 2019, the first phase of #ActivIndia campaign triggers ‘duty to vote’ as the main action for voters. The movement will further deepen public awareness through campaigns across all 6000 Honda network touchpoints, workplace locations supported by marketing communications across all mediums.

#ActivIndia - Proactive Citizens make a Progressive Nation

·         Pledge to vote: Visit www.hondaactivindia.com and join the #ActivIndia movement.

·         Set SMS reminder: Select your polling date on the website and get reminded a day before.

·         Join the movement through missed call: Just give a missed call on 9870500111 and support the #ActivIndia movement by taking a pledge to vote

·         Frame your pledge: Show the world your customized pledge frame and spread awareness.

·         Spread the cause: Upload your pledge certificate on social media and ask your friends and family to take the pledge too!

·          Every vote counts: Ensure two votes are cast for every two-wheeler. Ride to the polling booth with a pillion.

SunTec Confluence Dubai Highlights Critical Need for elevating Customer Experience Through Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation is gaining priority for organizations across the globe, the main drivers being the opportunities it presents and the competitive pressure to stay ahead of the digital curve. Banks and other organizations need to go beyond offering customers a product or a service and own the experience instead. This was the highlight of Trivandrum Technopark-based SunTec’s event - ‘SunTec Confluence’, held in Dubai.

SunTec, the leader in relationship-based pricing and customer experience orchestration, hosted its flagship event, ‘SunTec Confluence’. The theme for this year’s Confluence was “Digital at the Core”, an essential strategy in today’s world, as leading organizations seek to digitally transform, modernize their legacy systems and build a new core that is intelligent, immersive, integrated and invisible – one that can help in creating highly personalized customer experiences.The event was held in Palazzo Versace Dubai, one of the world’s only two Versace owned hotels, near the scenic Dubai Creek and now the world’s topmost digital city. 

The event highlight was the keynote address by Brett King, highly acclaimed influencer in financial services, award-winning speaker, co-founder and CEO of Moven. As a futurist, he visualized how four major trends - Artificial Intelligence, Voice based Artificial Intelligence, Smart Glasses and Machine Learning – are changing the ecosystem dynamics and how these will need to be embedded in customer experience journeys across industries like banking, telecom and retail.

“Access to credit is not the same as needing a credit card”, Brett explained, “It’s about creating an all new Credit experience, where banks can predict and assist your daily life credit requirements without a credit card and how open banking can tie all these data together for the banks”.

Nanda Kumar, CEO of SunTec, talked about the ever-pervasive effects of Industry 4.0. He stressed upon the need for organizations to understand and embrace the ‘basic human-needs’ driven approach if they want to succeed in today’s digital world.  Jost Hopperman, Vice President Forrester Research was another prominent keynote speaker

The key takeaway from the event was the growing need for organizations to focus on the ‘Customer Experience’part of their Digital Transformation programs. Replacing the core is not a viable option for most banks and this is a big hurdle for modernization projects – but not anymore. The SunTec product session demonstrated how banks can adopt a simple approach of Hollowing the core and separating the customer engagement layer to leap-frog the customer experience ladder.This simple yet highly effective strategy enables banks of all types, to exponentially increase their customer experience orchestration capabilities.

Amit Dua, President, SunTec, said, “Via Confluence, our goal is to provide a meaningful platform for industry thought leaders to come together and deliberate upon the state of Digital Transformation. The response has been extremely positive with generous appreciation for the high-quality content. We are delighted to have delivered to expectations of our clients and partner eco-system in helping shape the Digital Transformation roadmap for the industry”.

SunTec has been a trusted provider of services to various banks and other enterprises for years. Keeping the event in Dubai highlights SunTec’s growing presence and focus in Middle East, with most leading banks in the region preferring to work with SunTec in meeting VAT regulations as well as moving further in their legacy transformation journey by creating a truly Digital Core. 

Standard Chartered Turbo Charges Open Banking Capabilities

Standard Chartered is turbo charging its open banking capabilities, with a focus on driving innovation and technology culture through openness and partnerships with developers, corporations and fintechs to co-create better client products and services through the sharing and use of Application Programming Interface (APIs).

The bank announced three new initiatives aimed at the developer community:

·         aXess Platform 

The aXess platform (https://axess.sc.com/) will offer developers open access to the Bank’s open source code for banking products and its APIs, applications, and libraries. It serves as an adaptive layer in its technology architecture to drive more connectivity and partnerships between developers, corporations and fintechs, so innovative solutions can be co-created.

·         aXess Labs

The Bengaluru-based test lab is a physical space where the Bank’s in-house developers can experiment with cutting edge technologies, accelerate ideation to service delivery, enable new business models, and share open banking best practices, capabilities, and tools across the Bank.

·         aXess Academy

The developer academy aims to upskill the Bank’s developers with the technical skills required for open banking through training programmes, hackathons, and technology leadership roundtables. It is also a forum for networking with tech networks in other industries.

Dr Michael Gorriz, Group Chief Information Officer of Standard Chartered said: “Open banking is about putting more choices in the hands of our clients. They can decide what data they want to share, increasing their options of suitable services or products and how they are delivered. From the Bank’s perspective, this also opens many opportunities, because we can now offer banking services through other platforms which are already integrated in our clients’ lives, whether its social media or ecommerce, for example. This connectivity is made possible through APIs.”

Dr Sebastian Wedeniwski, the Bank’s Chief Technology Strategist said: “The future of banking is changing fast with massive technology-led innovations. Our aXess initiatives to boost our open banking capabilities aims to enhance the developer experience and upskill the technology expertise of the Bank, while guiding developers on our journey to build for openness and integration.”

Standard Chartered has been driving innovation in the banking space, co-creating solutions to improve client experience and establishing new partnerships and solutions to change how it approaches and thinks about banking. Following the successful pilot launch of its digital retail bank in Côte d’Ivoire last year, the Bank has further rolled out digital-only retail banks across Africa this year, in Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and Kenya. Most recently, the Bank announced the establishment of a strategic joint venture with PCCW, HKT and Ctrip Finance to deliver a new standalone digital retail bank in Hong Kong. It also recently announced the SC Ventures Fintech Bridge, a market-first online platform, through which the bank seeks partnerships with fintechs to solve business challenges which meet current and future client needs. It will soon be launching an open digital platform for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in India, to help them grow by providing access to a range of financial and business solutions. 

Tata Motors Group Global Wholesales at 145,459 in March 2019

The Tata Motors Group global wholesales in March 2019, including Jaguar Land Rover, were at 1,45,459 nos., lower by 5%, as compared to March 2018.

Global wholesales of all Tata Motors’ commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in March 2019 were at 57,163 nos., higher by 1%, over March 2018.

Global wholesales of all passenger vehicles in March 2019 were at 88,314 nos., lower by 9%, compared to March 2018.

Global wholesales for Jaguar Land Rover were 70,171 vehicles (*JLR number for March 2019 includes CJLR volumes of 4,812 units). Jaguar wholesales for the month were 20,985 vehicles, while Land Rover wholesales for the month were 49,186 vehicles.

*CJLR – It is a JV between JLR and Chery Automobiles and is an unconsolidated subsidiary for JLR

Indian Hotel Industry’s RevPAR to See 9.5% Growth in 2019 - HVS ANAROCK Report

Key Highlights

Approx. 8,574 keys to hit the market in 2019; nearly 19% increase over the last 2 years
Revenue per available room (RevPAR) sees 17% growth between 2016 and 2018
Average daily rates saw a 6.25% rise in 2018, faster than 4.5% long-term inflation rate
Goa saw the largest signing of keys in 2018 at nearly 2,209 keys, eclipsing Bengaluru by just 192 keys
Hotel transaction volume hit an all-time low in 2018 at INR 5,354 mn since 2007; 2019 likely to witness the sale of high-value hotel assets valued USD 800 mn across key markets

With demand finally outpacing supply, the Indian hospitality industry is on an upswing. The 'India Hospitality Industry Review 2018' report by HVS ANAROCK predicts RevPAR to grow by 9.5% in 2019.

Interestingly, Q1 2019 itself saw unexpected growth in the India hotel industry. The successful transaction of the Leela Hotels & Keys portfolio in Q1 2019 set a healthy tone for the start to the year, and trends indicating that 2019 could see transaction volumes reach around USD 800 mn.

However, some current headwinds – general elections-induced cautiousness and an increased supply of nearly 8,574 keys – could dampen the sector’s performance turnout for the year even as the overall trend remains positive in 2020.

Mandeep Lamba, President (South Asia) - HVS ANAROCK says, “The ongoing general elections could dampen some of the sector’s otherwise upbeat performance in 2019. However, the tide is set to change this year as market sentiments can recover with the aid of a stable Government post elections to support the required economic growth. Banking on this important factor and also considering the limited new supply in 2020, the hotel industry can record its highest-ever recorded occupancy and is expected to outpace 2006, which was a superlative year for the hotel industry.”

The report analyses trends of the past three years which suggest a 'new normal' in the Indian hospitality industry. Brands are opting for the least-risky projects with the highest prospects for timely completion, rather than for greenfield projects which pose a higher risk of cancellation.

International operators continue to proliferate, building large-format hotels compared to the majority of their domestic peers who typically churn out lower-inventory products. In 2018, international hotel operators also signed more hotel keys than their domestic peers.

At the city-level, Goa saw the largest signing of keys in 2018, outpacing Bengaluru (albeit by a margin of a mere 192 keys). “It is heartening to see Goa top the list, since this is normally considered to be a high-entry barrier destination; and has for that reason seen a much slower growth in inventory - even though it has been the top-performing market for a very long time," says Mandeep Lamba. 

The report confirms that 2018 was a slow year in terms of hotel investments, with total hotel transactions volumes in dollar terms contracting to their lowest since 2005 – from USD 158 mn in 2005 to a mere 78 mn in 2018. However, in terms of Indian Rupee value, the total transaction volume recorded was 6% higher than in 2005.

Shobhit Agarwal, MD & CEO - ANAROCK Capital says, “In 2019, we expect the Indian hospitality market to see an upsurge in transaction volumes due to distress pricing of hotel assets. This year is likely to witness the sale of high-value hotel assets in almost all key Indian hospitality markets. The expected transactions volume is approx. USD 800 million, potentially setting a record for hotel transactions in the country. The successful listing of the Lemon Tree and Chalet IPOs, as well as the recent transactions of the Keys and Leela portfolio, can prompt further investments in the hospitality sector. The Chalet Hotels IPO issue early this year raised INR 1,641 crore - subscribed 1.57 times - on account of strong interest shown by institutional investors. This trend is likely to continue.”

Other Report Highlights:

Rapid urbanization is increasingly making Tier 3 markets more relevant for hotel brands, with nearly a third of their new hotel signings emerging from these cities (despite hotels being smaller than the Tier 1 variants). More hotel management companies are setting up shop in smaller towns.

Value-driven volume customers seeking full-service hotels continue to drive growth in mid-scale hotels space, which is the highest growth sector for new hotel and rebranded hotel openings and signings in the Indian market.
The relatively 'new kids on the block' such as Oyo, Treebo and Fabhotels - previously considered outliers - now dominate the economy hotels segment, setting the stage for a further drift for mainstream brands.
Indian Hotel Industry’s RevPAR to See 9.5% Growth in 2019: HVS ANAROCK Report

With demand finally outpacing supply, the Indian hospitality industry is on an upswing. The 'India Hospitality Industry Review 2018' report by HVS ANAROCK predicts RevPAR to grow by 9.5% in 2019.

Interestingly, Q1 2019 itself saw unexpected growth in the India hotel industry. The successful transaction of the Leela Hotels & Keys portfolio in Q1 2019 set a healthy tone for the start to the year, and trends indicating that 2019 could see transaction volumes reach around USD 800 mn.

However, some current headwinds – general elections-induced cautiousness and an increased supply of nearly 8,574 keys – could dampen the sector’s performance turnout for the year even as the overall trend remains positive in 2020.

Mandeep Lamba, President (South Asia) - HVS ANAROCK says, “The ongoing general elections could dampen some of the sector’s otherwise upbeat performance in 2019. However, the tide is set to change this year as market sentiments can recover with the aid of a stable Government post elections to support the required economic growth. Banking on this important factor and also considering the limited new supply in 2020, the hotel industry can record its highest-ever recorded occupancy and is expected to outpace 2006, which was a superlative year for the hotel industry.”

The report analyses trends of the past three years which suggest a 'new normal' in the Indian hospitality industry. Brands are opting for the least-risky projects with the highest prospects for timely completion, rather than for greenfield projects which pose a higher risk of cancellation.

International operators continue to proliferate, building large-format hotels compared to the majority of their domestic peers who typically churn out lower-inventory products. In 2018, international hotel operators also signed more hotel keys than their domestic peers.

At the city-level, Goa saw the largest signing of keys in 2018, outpacing Bengaluru (albeit by a margin of a mere 192 keys). “It is heartening to see Goa top the list, since this is normally considered to be a high-entry barrier destination; and has for that reason seen a much slower growth in inventory - even though it has been the top-performing market for a very long time," says Mandeep Lamba. 

The report confirms that 2018 was a slow year in terms of hotel investments, with total hotel transactions volumes in dollar terms contracting to their lowest since 2005 – from USD 158 mn in 2005 to a mere 78 mn in 2018. However, in terms of Indian Rupee value, the total transaction volume recorded was 6% higher than in 2005.

Shobhit Agarwal, MD & CEO - ANAROCK Capital says, “In 2019, we expect the Indian hospitality market to see an upsurge in transaction volumes due to distress pricing of hotel assets. This year is likely to witness the sale of high-value hotel assets in almost all key Indian hospitality markets. The expected transactions volume is approx. USD 800 million, potentially setting a record for hotel transactions in the country. The successful listing of the Lemon Tree and Chalet IPOs, as well as the recent transactions of the Keys and Leela portfolio, can prompt further investments in the hospitality sector. The Chalet Hotels IPO issue early this year raised INR 1,641 crore - subscribed 1.57 times - on account of strong interest shown by institutional investors. This trend is likely to continue.”

Other Report Highlights:

Rapid urbanization is increasingly making Tier 3 markets more relevant for hotel brands, with nearly a third of their new hotel signings emerging from these cities (despite hotels being smaller than the Tier 1 variants). More hotel management companies are setting up shop in smaller towns.
Value-driven volume customers seeking full-service hotels continue to drive growth in mid-scale hotels space, which is the highest growth sector for new hotel and rebranded hotel openings and signings in the Indian market.
The relatively 'new kids on the block' such as Oyo, Treebo and Fabhotels - previously considered outliers - now dominate
the economy hotels segment, setting the stage for a further drift for mainstream brands.

Pioneer in Financial Inclusion Space - Dvara KGFS Acquires Varam Capital

Dvara KGFS (formerly IFMR Rural Channels and Services), a pioneer in the financial inclusion space, acquired Varam Capital Private Limited, a NBFC – MFI, to create growth capacity at Dvara KGFS.

Dvara KGFS, an NBFC, works with a mission to maximise financial well-being of every individual and every enterprise by providing complete access to financial services in remote rural India; Dvara KGFS has strong presence in Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Odisha, spread across 33 districts with 221 branches and more than 8,44,845 enrolled customers today.

Varam Capital has a robust digital and data science capability that aligns well with the KGFS strategy and commitment to using technology and data science to better serve remote rural customers. Varam Capital has a significant presence in Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh with 28 branches, presence in 12 districts, having more than 1,28,478 enrolled customers.

Varam customers and its digital capabilities will seamlessly be merged with the KGFS model to enhance the ability of the combined business to grow profitably and serve remote rural customers in the most customer centric way as possible, driven by purpose-built digital platforms and deep learning assisted understanding of the customer.

Commenting about the acquisition, Samir Shah, Executive Vice Chair & Group President of Dvara Trust, said, “We aim to grow geographically and continue to build a strong digital platform and data science architecture that helps us understand our remote rural customers better and thereby offer them a full-service wealth management experience that would eventually create financial freedom to them. The key priority and focus is to execute on the growth strategy of Dvara KGFS. With the additional customers, talent and tech capability from Varam, we feel this enhances our ability to execute with greater confidence”.

He further added “The portfolios of both the institutions compliment with the current planned growth of Dvara KGFS. They help us to diversify within Tamil Nadu and at the same time diversify outside of Tamil Nadu in our chosen markets. The deal is funded from the strong balance sheet of Dvara KGFS. We have worked very hard over the last few years to strengthen our operational metrics and financial performance that gives us the confidence to explore strategic growth opportunities both organically and inorganically. The growth plans of Dvara KGFS are strongly supported by the excellent commitment of its shareholders”.

Speaking about the value addition of this deal, Joby, CEO of Varam Capital said “We see Dvara KGFS as an institution focused on the wealth management approach, multi- product offering and customer centricity. This combined with Varam’s fintech approach will pave way for new growth opportunities. As part of our growth strategy, we will stay focused on our unique USP of remaining remote rural and grow in other states. We are also looking at strengthening Orissa and Jharkhand. Our priority is to build expertise to develop multi product offering, give a lot more focus to Micro Enterprise Loan, affordable housing segments and relook at the entire Jewel Loan portfolio.

Post this acquisition, the board has appointed Mr. Joby as the CEO and Mr. LVLN Murty as the Deputy CEO of Dvara KGFS. Mr. N. T. Arun Kumar also joins as Independent Director to the board of Dvara KGFS. Arun Kumar has decades of world-class technology leadership and will bring immense value to the board of Dvara KGFS. Arun Kumar has been serving on the board of Varam Capital for the past few years.

Unity Technologies and Disney Television Animation Celebrate Tech and Engineering Emmy Award for Collaboration on “Baymax Dreams”

 

Unity Technologies (https://unity3d.com), creator of the world’s most widely used real-time 3D development platform, celebrated its first Technology and Engineering Emmy win for its collaboration with Disney Television Animation on “Baymax Dreams.” The series of broadcast quality shorts, based on the Emmy Award-nominated television series, “Big Hero 6 The Series,” were created significantly faster in real-time compared to a traditional offline production cycle and aired on Disney Channel, YouTube, and the DisneyNOW app.

“Working with Disney Television Animation was a dream come true for the team at Unity. To see the creativity of trailblazing in animation rewarded with a Technology and Engineering Emmy is amazing validation at how far Unity’s real-time technology has evolved,” said Isabelle Riva, Head of Made with Unity, Unity Technologies. “On behalf of Unity, I’d like to thank the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for recognizing how our real-time technology has accelerated the innovation of broadcast quality productions.”

ACT Fibernet Forays into Consumer Product Category; Launches ACT Stream TV 4K Device in India

ACT Fibernet (Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd.) India’s largest fiber-focused broadband provider, today launched its first consumer product ‘ACT Stream TV 4K’ device powered by Android in India.  As part of the new brand strategy towards offering innovative customer centric solutions to enhance user experience, the streaming device will provide a 360 spin to all entertainment needs of a consumer.

Key Features and Offerings

ACT Stream TV 4K is a one stop entertainment solution for customers where they can enjoy their favourite movies, TV shows, sports, music videos from existing on-demand streaming providers and TV channels. Powered with ACT Fibernet’s high speed fibernet connectivity ACT Stream TV 4K has the capacity to transform a living space into a full-fledged entertainment zone.

Some key features of the box include,

4K device with Dolby Passthrough - Future ready to enable users experience their favourite content in its fullest.
ACT Stream TV 4K will allow streaming content from popular apps such as Netflix, Hotstar, Sony Liv, Hooq, Zee5, YouTube, Sun NxT and from 3000+ apps available on Google Play Store.  Customers can also watch over 100 of their favourite Free to air TV channels.
Single click subscription: Customers can subscribe to premium content from existing OTT streaming partners and channels that have tied up with ACT Fibernet and pay for their subscription directly as part of their monthly bill.
Catch up TV: Customers can catch up on their favourite TV shows, matches and highlights for upto 24 hours.
Powered by Android 9 Pie: Brings the power of the latest Android Pie operating system with access to over 3000 TV apps in the Google Play Store.
Voice search powered by the Google Assistant: Easy to search desired content and control device with voice commands powered by the Google Assistant.
External devices: Allows to connect hard disk, USB, joysticks, camera to view family pictures, video chat with friends or play games and more.
Compact and Sleek Design

Combined with latest technology and design, the box has been customized to make it intuitive and user friendly.  The device is supported with a remote-control unit which can be used to operate the box. The remote has an ergonomic design with minimalistic keys making it extremely easy to use and helps users launch their favourite apps from any screen they are in.

Price, Availability and Offers

The ACT Stream TV 4K box is priced at INR 4499. It will be available with select plans and for purchase post commercial launch in May 2019. Customers can visit www.actcorp.in/streamtv4k for purchase.

As an introductory offer, ACT Fibernet will provide the ACT StreamTV 4K complimentary to select 5000 customers. Additionally, customers will get a bundle of other exclusive offers including, discounted rates on the VOD apps, extended trial periods on content apps, free access to pay-per-view content, download apps from Google Play store and more.

Land Rover Opens Booking for Locally Manufactured Range Rover Vellar at ₹ 72.47 Lakh

Jaguar Land Rover India, has announced the start of local manufacturing of Range Rover Velar. The Range Rover Velar will be available in 2.0 l Petrol (184 kW) and 2.0 l Diesel (132 kW) powertrains and priced at ₹ 72.47 Lakh (ex-showroom India).

Rohit Suri, President & Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd. (JLRIL), said:

“We continue to focus on providing the best of British design, luxury and technology at highly competitive prices and we are sure that local manufacturing of the Range Rover Velar will make it even more desirable. This also reaffirms our commitment to the Indian market and to our customers.”

Available in the R-Dynamic S derivative, the locally manufactured Range Rover Velar will be fully loaded with progressive design, technology and luxury features. Some of these features include Touch Pro Duo, Activity Key, Wi-Fi and Pro Services, Meridian Sound System (380W), Four-zone Climate Control, Cabin Air Ionisation, Premium Leather interiors, 50.8 cm (20) wheels with Full size spare wheel, R-Dynamic exterior pack, Adaptive Dynamics, Premium LED headlights with signature LED DRL, Park Assist etc.

Land Rover Product Portfolio in India

The Land Rover range in India includes the Discovery Sport (starting at ₹ 44.68 Lakh), Range Rover Evoque (starting at ₹ 52.06 Lakh), All-New Discovery (starting at ₹ 76.94 Lakh), the New Range Rover Velar (starting at ₹ 72.47 Lakh), Range Rover Sport (starting at ₹ 103.74 Lakh)  and Range Rover (starting at ₹ 181.86 Lakh) . All prices mentioned are ex-showroom prices in India.

Jaguar Land Rover Retailer Network in India

Jaguar Land Rover vehicles are available in India through 27 authorised outlets in Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Karnal, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida, Pune, Raipur, Vijayawada and Surat. 

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Unveils Improved Innova Crysta and Fortuner

Key Highlights

*  Innova Crysta available in the price range of Rs. 14,93,000 and Rs. 22,43,000 Ex-showroom

*  Innova Touring Sport in the price range of Rs. 18,92,000 and Rs. 23,47,000 Ex-showroom

*  Innova is a market leader in its segment since launch in 2005 sold over 8,00,000 units

*  TKM sold over 2,25,000 units of Innova Crysta since launch in 2016

*  Fortuner available in the price range of Rs. 27,83,000 and Rs. 33,60,000 Ex-showroom

*  Fortuner a market leader in its segment since its launch in 2009 sold over 1,50,000 units

*  Ex-showroom prices above are same across the country

Standing strong by its ‘Customer First’ philosophy, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today announced the launch of the improved Innova Crysta and Fortuner. While the Innova Crysta launched in May 2016 has been the undisputed leader in the MPV segment known for its luxurious features, comfort, safety and powerful performance, the Fortuner with its bold design and imposing presence gives a distinctively new driving experience, delivering Toyota’s legendary promise of Quality, Durability and Reliability (QDR) and off-road prowess.

Keeping in mind the evolving customer needs and preferences, the Innova Crysta and Fortuner have been improved in the areas of comfort and interiors. Speaking on these improved versions, Mr. N. Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd said, “At Toyota, we truly believe in ‘Customer First’ philosophy and listen to our customers’ voice, continuously striving and innovating to make ever better cars and offer the best products and services. In line with the feedback from customers we are happy to incorporate our customer preferences in select grades of the Innova Crysta and the Fortuner in terms of interiors and comfort. With changing lifestyles people are spending more family time on road trips during weekends and thus car interiors and comfort features are emerging to be important parameters among car buyers. We thank our customers for their unrelenting support and trust that these improvements will further enhance and delight our esteemed customers.”

*  New features in Innova Crysta

·         Option of New Ivory leather upholstery

·         Perforated leather seats

·         Embossed “Crysta “ insignia

·         Heat Rejection Glass

·         USB Fast Charging Port

*New features applicable in select grades (Diesel variants only)
*Innova Touring Sport will get enhanced with Heat Rejection Glass and USB Fast Charging Port

*  New features in Fortuner
·         Option of new Chamois interior color

·         Seat Perforation

·         Heat Rejection Glass

*New features applicable to (4X2 AT, 4X4 MT & 4X4 AT diesel variants only)
The Innova often referred to as the segment creator, has maintained a leadership position since its launch in India way back in 2005, continuing to be the most preferred MPVs in the country with a segment share of over 40%. The Fortuner with its tough and cool image has emerged as the most popular vehicle, dominating the SUV segment since its launch in 2009. It is well recognized for its best in class durability, on-road comfort and off-road prowess currently with segment share of close to 70%.

The Data Literacy Project Announces Advisory Board to Support the Drive for a More Data Literate Society

Today the Data Literacy Project, the community dedicated to making society fluent in data, is announcing the launch of its Advisory Board with eight key appointments: Jordan Morrow, Qlik; Paul Malyon, Experian; Jane Crofts, Data To The People; Rahul Bhargava, MIT; Meri Rosich, VISA ; Chantilly Jaggernauth, Millennials and Data; Ben Jones, Data Literacy, LLC; and Alan Schwarz, CEO of DataPhi Communications, LLC.

The Advisory Board brings together global data leaders recognized for their knowledge of and contribution towards helping individuals and organizations to strategically harness and succeed with data every day. Their collective experience enables the Board to provide strategic council for every stage in an individual or organization’s data literacy journey: from supporting education in schools and career development for young people, to rolling out data literacy programs and designing the data strategies at some of the largest organizations in the world.

An essential skill in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, data literacy empowers everyone to ask questions of data and machines, build knowledge, make decisions and communicate its meaning with others. The Data Literacy Project, which was launched in October 2018 by founding partners Qlik, Accenture, Cognizant, Experian, Pluralsight, Chartered Institute of Marketing, and Data to the People, aims to create a more data literate society and place data literacy at the heart of individual and organizational success.

The independent group of global data literacy leaders joining the Advisory Board will provide impartial, third-party strategic counsel and direction in support of the Project’s three commitments:

Inspiring major organizations globally to make data literacy an imperative;
Creating the most accessible and comprehensive global data literacy educational resource ecosystem; and
Empowering educational institutions globally to place data literacy into the mainstream curriculum.

“It is testimony to the immense importance of data literacy that we have brought together this group of influential data leaders to help us shape the roadmap that will enable the Data Literacy Project to deliver against its mission of creating a more data literate society,” said Jordan Morrow, Chair of the Data Literacy Project Advisory Board and Head of Data Literacy at Qlik. “As the Project’s community continues to grow, their expertise and experience will be critical to ensure we’re able to practically support individuals and organizations in improving their data literacy.”

The Board Members include:

·         Rahul Bhargava, researcher and technologist specializing in civic technology and data literacy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

·         Jane Crofts, Founder of Data To The People and Creator of Databilities

·         Chantilly Jaggernauth, the Founder and CEO of Millennials and Data (#MAD)

·         Jordan Morrow, Global Head of Data Literacy, Qlik

·         Ben Jones, Founder and CEO of Data Literacy, LLC and Instructor in Data Visualization Theory at the University of Washington

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Celebrates 20 Years in India - Creating a cleaner, Greener and Safer Tomorrow

Toyota Kirloskar Motor, the leading automobile manufacturer globally is celebrating 20 years of offering ever better cars to the customers of India. Toyota’s focus in India has been steady towards sustainable growth and to remain competitive with best of safety, comfort, luxury, quality and after sales services, through globally acclaimed models, to further enrich customer trust & confidence. Toyota has been winning hearts with its legendary segment leading products like Qualis, Innova, Fortuner and Corolla backed by the global QDR philosophy. Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s vision, philosophy and guidelines are true reflections of its commitment for a sustainable future.

Toyota primarily focuses on solving larger issues faced by the nation than just manufacturing world class cars. This thinking way drives their production system, products and services, national campaigns and all daily operations ensuring low emissions, fuel saving, energy conservation, safety as a prerequisite.

‘Customer First Philosophy’
Toyota has been listening to customers and constantly evaluating the rapidly changing needs of Indian Car customers to offer the right product to the Indian market. Since the launch of its multi-purpose vehicle the `Qualis' in India in 2000, the company has been focusing on evolving customer aspirations in India. The Company has been constantly upgrading its products and introducing newer innovations and technologies in the Indian Market. Toyota has continuously pursued to be Number One in Customer Satisfaction with every product milestones ‘Launch of Toyota Camry in 2002’, ‘Launch of Corolla in 2003’, Launch of Innova in 2005, Launch of Fortuner in 2009, Launch of Etios in 2010, Launch of Innova Crysta in 2016 and Launch of Yaris in 2018. With diverse product lineup, Toyota has endeavored to improve its standards in terms of providing the best quality, unbeaten safety, performance, fuel efficiency and unmatched comfort in every segment.

Customer First has been the key guiding principle for Toyota in its successful journey in India, to ensure a safe, convenient and hassle free driving experience to customers Toyota Kirloskar Motor launched TOYOTA CONNECT INDIA, in 2017 a smart phone application

based connected services which caters to customer’s mobility & ownership needs in a personalized manner. TOYOTA CONNECT INDIA is a fully integrated cloud based connected service platform supported by a dedicated & specialized call center, Toyota’s dealer networks and service providers.

‘Safety Leaders’
In response to a rapid increase in traffic accidents in urban areas of India and prioritizing Customer Safety, Toyota is the first auto manufacturer to have standardized airbags across all grades in all models in India in 2015. Further, ABS & EBD has been standardized [with the launch of new Platinum Etios & Liva, since Sep 2016], reinstating the importance of safety. With Yaris, Toyota Kirloskar Motor [TKM] has underpinned commitment to safety by being the first in the segment to offer 7 SRS airbags – (D+P airbags, Side airbags, Curtain Shield Airbags (CSA) and knee airbag) across all variants in the new Yaris in 2018. Toyota continuously strives to develop advanced safety technology and apply them in its vehicles. Aligning with Toyota’s global philosophy - Toyota Kirloskar Motor being a Safety Leader, have implemented various safety initiatives by engaging with stakeholders – Employees, Dealers partners & Supplier partners through a 3-dimension concept of Manufacturing Safe Cars, Developing Safe Drivers & Building Safer Environment.

There is one fatal accident in India every 4 minutes which means that 1.4 lakh such accidents take place every year. To create a safe driving culture in the country Toyota launched its first driving school in Kochi in 2015. Toyota Kirloskar Motor has launched 11 other driving schools at Kochi, Lucknow, Hyderabad (two), Chennai (two), Kolkata, Faridabad, Vijayawada and Surat. As part of the brand's 'Safest Car with Safest Driver' mission for road safety, it plans to have 50 such schools across India by 2020.

‘Eco -Consciousness’
In addition to making ever better cars, Toyota is committed towards a greener tomorrow and establishing a future society in harmony with nature. Toyota being a leader in the environmental stewardship started its journey towards greening its energy source since 2015-16 and has made substantial step-up over the years. Guided by Toyota’s ‘Global Environmental Challenge’ 2050 in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, till January ‘19 [in FY 2018-19] - Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) successfully sourced 87% of electricity from renewable source of energy for its operations in Bidadi facility. Toyota has been recognized for its sustainable growth with its core belief “Ever-Better Cars with Ever-Better Technology for an Ever-Better Environment”.

‘Green-Manufacturing’
TKM sources clean energy and adopts smart manufacturing systems towards Toyota’s ultimate global mission of ‘Zero Carbon Emission through various initiatives like adoption of reverse refrigeration system, centralized control of chillers, adoption of smart ACs, TKM has been reducing significant quantity of Co2 releases over the years. Recognising these efforts on reduction of emission in TKM’s manufacturing plant with key contributor being optimisation of renewable energy, TKM was recognised as a “Model Plant”. TKM has established their Plant 2 with an ECO factory concept and implemented ECO friendly technologies like Servo press (40% energy reduction), Water based painting technology (Reducing VOC emission by 50%). Through its philosophy of “KAIZENS”, TKM drives continuous improvement in its environmental performance with active participation of employees in bringing the change.

‘Energy Security’
The company has also been vesting enormous efforts to reduce its energy consumptions through controlling and reducing daily energy consumption in each of the operational processes instilling stringent & systematic monitoring to track energy usages. In FY 2018- 19, 76% of the Water consumed in the Manufacturing Facility was recycled water and only 7% of fresh water was consumed. As pioneered makers of eco-cars leading the way for a better tomorrow, Toyota recently launched The All New Camry Hybrid Electric Vehicle. Toyota’s strong hybrid technology not only aims at creating harmony with man, nature and machine, but also positioned as the future of eco-mobility. The Camry Hybrid or self- charging electric vehicle is a strong hybrid and the only hybrid which is locally manufactured at Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s second plant located at Bidadi [Bangalore, Karnataka] in India.

Mr Masakazu Yoshimura, Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said “We would like to thank our customers, our vendors, our people and the Government for the relentless support and trust in the company over all these years. The inspiration from all  our partners has been instrumental in our growth in India. Toyota globally believes in creating a smart mobility driven society with integrated approach connecting People, Vehicles and the Society. At Toyota, we are constantly challenging ourselves to create new ways to move and connect our customers. India is a very important market for us, we have been continuously striving to bring in newer innovations and technology to cater to the discerning taste of customers. All through this long journey, our products have stood the test of time being appreciated for the value it offers to customers.

Toyota's renowned reputation of Quality Durability and Reliability (QDR) has led our steady growth in the Indian automotive market. We are proud to declare that over 1.5 million Indians are part of the ever growing Toyota family.

We also strive towards developing a more sustainable future and being pioneers in the Hybrid Technology is our first step towards this movement. Through initiatives focused on education, community development and the environment, we aim to create a company that works in harmony with nature and society."

Wipro Lighting and Mapiq Announce Partnership for Smart Workplaces

Wipro Lighting, part of Wipro Enterprises Limited and Mapiq, The Netherlands have entered into a strategic partnership to deliver a superior end-user experience in the area of Smart Workplaces.

Wipro Lighting, a pioneer in smart lighting products in India, is one the largest lighting companies in the country. It is synonymous with innovative lighting solutions for indoor and outdoor across many different industries, such as retail, commercial offices, healthcare, and others. Wipro’s tremendous depth in lighting knowledge and collaborations with international lighting and technology companies led to the launch of  Internet of Lighting (IoL)TM in 2018. In October of 2018, Frost & Sullivan recognized Wipro with the “Connected Lighting Company of the Year” award.

“We're going to see a rise in smart building world with a focus on the end-users. We believe that this partnership can take us to the next level when it comes down to really understanding the needs of employees and support them during their workday. A productive, happy employee is the foundation for the biggest ROI for a company.” said Anuj Dhir, Vice President & Business Head, Commercial Lighting Business of Wipro.

Mapiq is a Dutch scale up and frontrunner in the development of smart building platforms. With headquarters in Delft, The Netherlands it creates a unified, cloud-based platform that helps optimize workspaces and activate the true potential of employees. Mapiq is a software platform that shows your office building in an interactive 3D map. Employees can use Mapiq to book rooms, find their way around the building, search for free workplaces, find their colleagues, and much more. It works like personalized Google for Smart Workplace.  Facility managers and building owners can use data collected by Mapiq to make well thought out decisions about their office spaces.

“The workspace has become more open and dynamic than ever before. Being able to work anytime, anywhere, provides great flexibility. However, this way of working often decreases the amount of face-to-face contact in the office. Technology with its unique twist, brings people and teams back together,” said Sander Schutte, Founder & CEO of Mapiq.

Wipro will implement Mapiq into their of  Internet of Lighting (IoL)TM - Smart Building Proposition. For Mapiq this partnership represents the global ambitions of the company. The agility and innovation from a Dutch scale-up and the experience and service from one of the most recognized technology companies is promising formula for a global roll-out.  The first Smart building in India arising from this partnership is expected to go live before summer 2019.

Tata Motors’ Introduces ‘SAMARTH’ Program for Commercial Vehicle Drivers in India

Key highlights:

·         This program will be executed by TATA AIG, Oriental Insurance Company, ICICI prudential, TATA Mutual Fund and Toppr Technologies Private Limited (Toppr), across India for all TATA CV drivers and owner drivers

·         Over 5 lakh drivers may avail benefit from this program every year

·         Drivers enrolled under Swasthya Samarth may avail 2 comprehensive health checkups covering 6 health profiles/57 tests & INR 50,000 hospitalization coverage for drivers and owner drivers per year, per vehicle and renewable every year

·         24*7 telephonic assistance for health related queries on toll free number 1800-4254033

·         Drivers enrolled under Surakshit Samarth may avail Accidental Death or Disability Cover up to Rs.10, 00,000/- per year, per vehicle for drivers and owner drivers

·         Drivers enrolled under Sampatti Samarth may avail Nationwide Financial Literacy Camps to encourages investment habits among drivers and owner drivers through SIP

·         Drivers enrolled under Siksha Samarth may avail online tutoring and career counselling for children of all enrolled drivers and owner drivers. Meritorious students of customers, owner-drivers and drivers in Class 8 to Class 10 who are eligible under the scholarship scheme of Tata motors will receive one year free subscription of Toppr for relevant academic year.

Tata Motors, India’s largest commercial vehicle player today launched a first-of-its-kind Pioneer program, with an aim to acknowledge and promote the driving profession in the trucking space. Under this initiative, Tata Motors Samarth will endeavour to address four critical areas for the drivers’ well-being, which are presently identified as Swasthya (Wellness program), Sampatti (Finance program) and Siksha (Education program) along with Surakshit Samarth (driver on wheel insurance). The program will be launched PAN India and will attempt to reach out to more than 5 Lakh drivers every year.

Extending the benefits to the driver’s family and securing their future, Tata Motors along with Oriental Insurance Company has introduced Surakshit Samarth, which provides an accidental death or disability cover up to INR 10,00,000 per year, per vehicle for drivers and owner drivers linked to the Chassis, since 2011. Today, in association with Tata AIG General Insurance Company, Swasthya Samarth aims to provide health insurance products including 2 comprehensive health checkups covering 6 health profiles/57 tests and INR 50,000 hospitalization coverage, with an option to upgrade to family cover. The program will be linked to new vehicle sales and the policy will be issued by Tata AIG. TATA AIG will also be setting up free medical camps at Tata  Motors defined locations.

On the launch of TATA Motors SAMARTH program, Mr. Girish Wagh, President, CVBU, Tata Motors said, “True to the philosophy of connecting aspirations, we at Tata Motors are driving our efforts towards driver empowerment and welfare. Our program ‘SAMARTH’ is tailored to make the entire trucking profession dignified. We intend to cement our long-lasting relationship with our customers and their drivers to safeguard their health, ensuring overall wellbeing of their families and in the process uplift the quality of life for them.”

Along with healthcare benefits, Sampatti Samarth plans to encourage investment habits among drivers through its SIP offering by ICICI Prudential and TATA Mutual Funds, with a lock-in period of 3 years, as well as conduct financial literacy camps for drivers and owner drivers across India.Furthermore, Tata Motors has joined hands with Toppr and introduced Siksha Samarth. Toppr is a learning app for classes 5th to 12th that helps students prepare for every board, competitive and scholastic exam. Toppr personalizes learning by creating a unique path for each student based on their strengths and weaknesses. On Toppr, students can watch free video lectures, practice questions designed for them, attempt mock tests and get their doubts solved 24x7. More than 7 million students trust Toppr to learn better. Meritorious students of customers, owner-drivers and drivers in Class 8 to Class 10 who are eligible under the scholarship scheme of Tata motors will receive one year free subscription of Toppr for relevant academic year.

Apart from the grueling work schedule, extended periods away from home, commercial vehicle drivers and owner drivers have the additional pressure of healthcare costs. The launch of the all-encompassing initiative by Tata Motors is designed to positively impact the Commercial Vehicle community and work towards improving society’s perception of this profession.

Through TATA Motors Samarth Program, the company is providing a common platform for various industry stakeholders to reach out and address the Health, Education and Finance needs of drivers’ community via their customize product offerings.

Terms and Conditions of the respective Associates i.e. TATA AIG, Oriental Insurance Company, ICICI prudential, TATA Mutual Fund and Toppr Technologies Private Limited (Toppr) shall apply. Participants may contact Tata Motors Dealerships for any details pertaining to the program, including its respective terms and conditions, and enrollment therein.  

Sathya Kalyanasundaram Appointed Country MD at its Operations at Experian India

Experian India, one of the leading data analytics, decisioning companies and the first credit bureau to be licensed in India under the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005, has further fortified its senior leadership team. The company has announced the appointment of Sathya Kalyanasundaram as Country Managing Director, Experian India.

Sathya will be responsible for driving further growth of the overall India operations of Experian with a focused vision on vertical market strategy and strategic clients. He will leverage Experian’s global strength in leading the strategic development of Experian solutions for India, aligning with the company’s global product and industry leaders in Decision Analytics, Credit Services, Data Quality and Consumer Services. Experian India’s leadership team will report into him to implement the organisation’s business plans.

Sathya brings with him over 20 years of experience from Consulting, Finance and FinTech leadership roles. Most recently, he was the CEO of MobME Wireless Solutions Limited, a technology conglomerate and fintech solution provider in India where he was responsible for creating market strategies and formulating expansion plans including directing new product & portfolio development and conceptualizing MobME's customer interfacing solutions. Prior to this, Sathya led the India operations of global MNCs such as Scientific Games (a USD 3 billion diversified gaming company), and Texas Instruments (a USD 15 billion leader in semiconductors). He was also associated with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) as Senior Member - Economic Affairs Panel.

Commenting on the appointment, Ben Elliott, CEO Experian Asia Pacific said, “We are delighted to welcome Sathya to the Experian family. His extensive experience across a variety of sectors will ensure that we take Experian India to the next level. We are confident that his appointment to lead Experian will strengthen our presence in India, with a focus on building innovative solutions for India’s consumers.”

Sathya Kalyanasundaram, Country Managing Director, Experian India said, “Financial institutions investing in data and analytics have been changing the narrative on providing differentiated experiences for their consumers. I believe Experian India, being the pioneer in the field of data analytics and decisioning, has a tremendous role to play in this and I look forward to driving our growth strategy and taking the company forward as we embrace the opportunities ahead.”

Lustrum FY15-19 Saw Sharp Increase in Fresh Investment: Projects Today Survey

The 74th Survey of projects investment in India conducted by Projects Today indicates that during the five-year period FY15-19, 47,911 new projects were announced with a total investment of Rs 60,51,281 crore as against 43,876 new projects worth Rs 29,28,125 crore announced in the preceding five-year period FY10-14, a rise of 106.7 percent.

The buoyancy in announcement of fresh investment was observed across all major sectors except the Electricity sector, which recorded absolute decline both in number of new projects and investment committed therein. While fresh investment increased by more than 100 percent in the Manufacturing, Mining, Infrastructure and Irrigation sectors, the Manufacturing and Irrigation sectors saw less number of new projects announced during the latest five-year period ending 31 March 2019.

Though the Manufacturing sector attracted 1,325 less projects during the FY15-19 period, thanks to increase in the number of mega projects (with cost of Rs 1,000 crore or more), total fresh investment expanded by 130.5 percent from Rs 7,00,725 crore to Rs 16,15,456 crore. As a result, the share of Manufacturing in total fresh investment increased from 23.9 percent in FY10-14 to 26.7 percent in FY15-19. Among the sub-sectors, Fertilisers, Steel, Cement, Refinery and Electronics segments received increased fresh investment commitments during the FY15-19 period.

The FY15-19 period saw announcement of 253 mega projects. Of these, 218 were owned by private promoters. The preceding five-year period had seen announcement of 131 mega projects.

Reflecting the emphasis of the current government on infrastructure building, fresh investment intensions multiplied three times from Rs 11,46,208 crore in FY10-14 to Rs 34,09,300 crore in FY15-19. The sector comprising transport and social infrastructure saw announcement of 39,509 new projects in FY15-19 as against 33,145 projects announced during the FY10-14 period.

The extra emphasis laid by the Central government on expanding highways led to trebling of fresh investment in the Roadways from Rs 3,64,809 crore in FY10-14 to Rs 11,24,996 crore in FY15-19.

The Construction sector comprising Commercial Complexes, Industrial Parks and Real Estate saw a fall in number of new projects during the five-year period FY15-19. Though fresh investment commitments increased from Rs 2,18,439 crore in FY10-14 to Rs 6,42,657 crore in FY15-19, the twin-balance sheet phenomenon affected this sector the most. Further, demonetisation, GST and the RERA Act disrupted the basic functioning of the industry.

The Power sector, during the FY15-19 period, witnessed more stalling of the existing projects than announcement of new projects. Most of the large-size thermal power projects announced during the FY10-14 period could not make much progress due to non-availability of land, lack of finance and delays in signing of PPA agreements.

As against 639 thermal projects worth Rs 7,90,227 crore announced during FY10-14 only 98 new thermal projects worth Rs 2,19,568 crore were announced during FY15-19. On the other hand, new investment in renewable power projects (mainly Solar and Wind) expanded by 294.5 percent from Rs 92,760 crore during FY10-14 to Rs 3,65,953 crore during FY15-19.

Cumulative fresh investment in the Irrigation sector increased sharply from Rs 57,934 crore in FY10-14 to Rs 1,98,869 crore during FY15-19. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana were the large investors in this sector.

The Supreme Court's decision to cancel 214 coal blocks allocated to developers, not only stalled fresh investments flowing into this sector, but also affected the functioning of power plants with an aggregate capacity of 28,000 MW. Though the Central government re-allocated or auctioned 86 coal mines, actual production has begun in only 23 mines as of December 2018.

The FY15-19 period saw announcement of 763 new projects worth Rs 1,88,272 crore as against 627 projects worth Rs 89,711 crore announced during FY10-14. The Private sector is involved in around 60 oil exploration projects and 25 coal mining projects.

Private Sector Investment: Showing signs of revival

Private investment after picking up in FY15 and FY16 slumped in FY17 and FY18 only to recover in FY19. However, all along the five years (FY15-19) private fresh investment remained higher than the lower figures seen in FY12, FY13 and FY14.

Policy paralysis and financial mismanagement saw large scale stalling of projects in the last three years of the FY10-14 period. Further, heavy borrowings and mismanagement of funds forced owners of such projects to default on their debts mostly borrowed from Indian banks. The resultant “twin-balance sheet” issue weighed heavily on financing the ongoing projects, which in turn forced even the genuine promoters to go slow on new projects announcement.

During FY15-19, total fresh investment by the Private sector increased by 55 percent (thanks to mega projects), however, the number of new projects fell sharply when compared to FY10-14 statistics. This indicates the uneasiness of small- and medium-size private companies that are still awaiting revival in domestic demand to chalk out their expansion plans.

Stalling of Projects continued in FY15-19

The Survey indicates that during the FY15-19 period 3,642 projects worth Rs 16,59,353 crore were put on the back-burner as against 3,791 projects Rs 10,94,945 crore in the FY10-14 period indicating an increase of 51.6 percent in toxic projects during the latest five-year period, FY15-19. Around 82 percent of the total projects investment vanished during FY15-19 was in the Manufacturing and Electricity sectors.

On the positive note, the total quantum of stalled projects after hitting the recent high of Rs 1,95,795 crore in the first quarter of FY18 dropped sharply to Rs 12,477 crore in the last quarter of FY19. This is the lowest quarter figure recorded in the last eighteen quarters.