Clearwater Analytics Marks First Year of Business Operations in India, Continues to Ramp Hiring for Development Talent

Clearwater Analytics, a global SaaS provider of investment accounting and reporting, is celebrating one year of business operations at the Delhi-NCR office. The company has continued to grow globally during these challenging times and plans to add to its product development talent for its India-based teams.  

Established in August 2019, the Delhi-NCR site is part of Clearwater’s operations and development centre network, with offices also in Boise Idaho, USA; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Seattle, Washington, USA. The centre plays a strategic role for Clearwater from the Asia Pacific region with access to a strong talent market and the ability to provide follow-the-sun servicing capabilities.

Clearwater has continued to add clients and hire employees worldwide during a year marked by a public health crisis and a sudden shift to a work-from-home model. The Delhi-NCR office met its original growth target and plans to double that headcount by year-end 2020.

“As we mark our first year operating in India, we are thrilled about the advances made by our talented team of professionals in Delhi-NCR and the significant contributions they have already made to Clearwater’s technology, servicing expertise, and culture in general,” said Sandeep Sahai, Chief Executive Officer of Clearwater Analytics. “While expanding globally this year, the company responded to the pandemic by implementing initiatives to drive an integrated focus from all our centres in support of our clients. The Clearwater team’s focus on operational excellence and metrics is a model for success. We are all excited to see what the next year brings for our employees; their contributions to our key initiatives and overall roadmap continue to make us better, and to delight our clientele.” 

Clearwater’s cloud-based solution is more vital than ever as the global business community has adapted to evolving remote office work models. Technologies like machine learning, cloud, and hyper-automation are key elements to fortifying the company’s technology and services offering as it serves some of the world’s largest and most complex institutional investors.

“Staying ahead with technological advancements is so important to our company’s mission to be the world’s most trusted and comprehensive software platform for investment accounting and analytics,” said Warren Barkley, Chief Technology Officer of Clearwater Analytics. “New and advancing technologies are the future and, in some ways, the now. They continue to affect how we build a world-class product and the new products we are eager to build at our Delhi-NCR development centre.”

Job roles at the company include skilled positions for software developers, data operations specialists, reconciliation analysts, and investment accounting and reporting experts.

“Over the past year we have built an excellent product development team in India. Given that we have so much more to do, we are looking to further scale our software development effort from India,” said Anurag Singh, Managing Director, India for Clearwater Analytics. “The strength of the talent market in India strongly aligns with Clearwater’s companywide initiatives.”

About Clearwater Analytics

Clearwater Analytics is a global SaaS solution for automated investment data aggregation, reconciliation, accounting, and reporting. Clearwater helps thousands of organisations make the most of their investment portfolio data with a world-class product and client-centric servicing. Clearwater offers a full complement of middle- and back-office solutions like trade confirm/affirm, client billing, composite management, client statements, and more.

Each day, the Clearwater solution reports on more than $4 trillion in assets for clients that include Arch Capital, AXA Art Insurance, Catalina Holdings, Cisco, Convex Group, Facebook, FBD Insurance, Garmin, J.P. Morgan, London & Capital, Oracle, Spotify, Starbucks, Unum Group, and many others.

Since its founding in 2004, Clearwater has provided a cloud-native solution that helps investors make the most of their data. Investment professionals in more than 49 countries trust Clearwater to deliver timely, validated investment data and in-depth reporting.

Godrej Professional Launches a Campaign Highlighting How Salons are Now #hairforyou

Godrej Professional, a professional brand with products in hair colour, care, styling and keratin from Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL), launched the #hairforyou campaign as an extension to the Suraksha Salon Program, with the objective of helping the Indian salon industry get back on its feet and reinstate customer confidence to visit salons. As a part of this, the brand engaged with several influencers across Indian cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Pune. Renowned actresses such as Anupama Gowda and Rajni Dwivedi from Bengaluru, Madhu Shalini from Hyderabad, and Ritabhari Chakraborty, Alivia Sarkar, and Geetashree Roy from Kolkata were also engaged as part of the Godrej Professional #hairforyou campaign.

Godrej Professional through the #hairforyou campaign is attempting to re-establish the confidence of the customers to visit their favourite salons. During the past few months, hair care moved down the priority list and was largely neglected due to unavailability of professional help. However, now as the restrictions have eased, customers can once again treat their hair with professional care. Through engagement with the influencers, the campaign also endeavoured to showcase the hygiene measures that the salon chains have incorporated, to ensure client and employee safety. Right from entry into the salon to the conclusion of the service, the salons uncompromisingly adhered to hygiene protocols.

Commenting on the campaign Mr. Sunil Kataria CEO – India and SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) said, “Godrej Professional always endeavours to support the Indian salon industry and with the imposition of the lockdown, the beauty establishments suffered with no business. Now, we wanted to communicate how salon establishments are ready to welcome customers once again with a revived importance of hygiene. Through this initiative, Godrej Professional aimed to show that hair care no longer needs to be neglected and that with the right safety measures in place, clients can have an immersive salon experience.”

Suraksha Salon Program by Godrej Professional rested on three pillars – free distribution and subsidized sanitizer and disposable kits cost for salons, education on safety and hygiene for salon infrastructure and services, and back-to-business support. All of these initiatives are available free of cost to any salon that requires support and is not restricted to those that use Godrej Professional.

About Godrej Consumer Products Ltd:

Godrej Consumer Products is a leading emerging markets company. As part of the 123-year young Godrej Group, we are fortunate to have a proud legacy built on the strong values of trust, integrity and respect for others. At the same time, we are growing fast and have exciting, ambitious aspirations.

Today, our Group enjoys the patronage of 1.15 billion consumers globally, across different businesses. In line with our 3 by 3 approach to international expansion at Godrej Consumer Products, we are building a presence in 3 emerging markets (Asia, Africa, Latin America) across 3 categories (home care, personal wash, hair care). We rank among the largest household insecticide and hair care players in emerging markets. In household insecticides, we are the leader in India, the second largest player in Indonesia and are expanding our footprint in Africa. We are the leader in serving the hair care needs of women of African descent, the number one player in hair colour in India and Sub-Saharan Africa, and among the leading players in Latin America. We rank number two in soaps in India and are the number one player in air fresheners and wet tissues in Indonesia.

But for us, it is very important that besides our strong financial performance and innovative, much-loved products, we remain a good company. Approximately 23 per cent of the promoter holding in our Group is held in trusts that invest in the environment, health and education. We are also bringing together our passion and purpose to make a difference through our 'Good & Green' approach to create a more inclusive and greener India.

At the heart of all of this, is our talented team. We take much pride in fostering an inspiring workplace, with an agile and high performance culture. We are also deeply committed to recognising and valuing diversity across our teams.

Microsoft New Research Reveals Businesses Need to Prioritize Skills as much as Technology to Maximize Value from AI

Microsoft India today released new research revealing that organizations that combine deployment of AI with skilling initiatives are generating most value from AI.  Topline findings of the research underscore that mature AI firms are more confident about the return on AI and skills. Over 93% of senior executives surveyed from these companies were sure their business was gaining value from AI.  The research further highlights that employees from mature AI companies are eager to deepen their AI skills and reinvest freed up time to add value for the organization. The research surveyed employees and leaders within large enterprises across industry verticals in India, and 19 other countries, to look at the skills needed to thrive as AI becomes increasingly adopted by businesses, as well as the key learnings from early AI adopters. 

Dr Rohini Srivathsa, National Technology Officer, Microsoft India, said, “As we look to rebound and reimagine the future after months of economic fluidity, technology will play a key role in rebooting enterprises. AI is at the heart of digital transformation - which has accelerated at an extraordinary pace - and will continue to play a critical role in helping businesses be more agile, resilient and competitive during this time. However, the path of unlocking the full potential of AI lies in combining its deployment with skilling initiatives that focus on both tech and soft skills. We believe this will be important for us to emerge from this crisis successfully.”

AI Maturity stages of enterprises

The AI maturity of companies has been divided into three categories in the survey

* AI Beginners: AI is neither explored nor used in any way right now

* AI Intermediates: AI applications are being explored / experimented with, for a range of use cases but sporadically

* AI Leading: AI is a part of the corporate strategy and is embedded into the company’s offerings

Both the senior executives and employees surveyed found a direct link between having the skills needed to thrive in an AI world and the value organizations gain from their AI implementations. The research further reveals that employees are keen to acquire AI relevant skills that are growing in importance and are of value to them personally and to the business. In fact, organization leaders surveyed predicted that half of all employees will be equipped with AI skills in the next 6-10 years, which is nearly one-and-a-half times more than the present estimations.

Higher growth companies are combining skilling with AI deployment for greater business value

In India, 100% of the AI-leading companies say they are actively building the skills of their workers or have plans to do so.  Over 93% employees at these firms have already been part of re-skilling programs. The employees benefitting from these programs are actively providing strategic benefits to their companies through innovating, solving, and collaborating. Notably, 98% of the employees surveyed among all the AI companies were highly motivated for reskilling.

The combination of skilling and AI deployment is helping businesses succeed. 94% of senior executives from AI Leading businesses acknowledged that they are already seeing value from AI deployment. In fact, Indian AI Intermediate companies are also not too far behind in this aspect –- with 87% sharing the same view.  The gap between the two categories across all the countries surveyed, however, is much wider at 25%.

The research shows that AI-leading firms are focused on ensuring that AI is complementing the talents of their people. These businesses are cultivating employee skills across every category – ranging from advanced data analysis and critical thinking to communications and creativity.

AI is creating company cultures more focused on innovation and learning

Notably, at the time the survey was conducted, 98% of AI Leading firms in India were increasing skills investments. These companies were looking for ways to expand their employees’ digital capabilities to unlock new avenues for growth. 93% of them were actively hiring skilled workers or had plans to, to complement their internal skilling programs. It is also interesting to note that more than 97% business leaders in India are willing to provide financial rewards in some form, fast track promotion or a combination of both in order to promote job satisfaction and higher level of AI-relevant skills among employees.

Interestingly, the overall number of Indian employees were interested in skilling (85%) is more than double of that of employees across all surveyed markets (38%). 98% of all employees were keen to participate in reskilling programs, and some 92% at AI leader businesses have already done so (vs. 85% avg.) and 87% felt their workplace was doing enough to prepare them for AI. This number rises to 95% for AI-leading businesses, which is nearly one-and-a-half times higher than the corresponding number across all surveyed markets.

“We’re seeing a virtuous circle emerge among the companies seeing the greatest value from AI. These leaders have seen that having the right skills enables them to unlock value from AI, which encourages them to extend their use of AI and, in turn, continue in up-levelling skills in their organization,” said Dr Srivathsa.

For an overview of the key research findings please visit: https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/leading-businesses-reveal-power-of-combining-human-ingenuity-with-ai-rohini-srivathsa/

Methodology

KRC Research conducted a random online sample of approximately 12,000 people working with enterprise companies (more than 250 employees). Within in each market the sample was comprised of at least 500 workers and 100 leaders (director / senior executive level and above). Markets represented include: Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (combined), Hungary, Australia, Brazil, Israel, Turkey, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, India, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.

TradeIndia's First Covid-19 Essential Expo 2020 Witness 18000 Attendees on Day 1

In an attempt to resuscitate the ailing small and medium industries of the country that have suffered from the business-numbing impact of the pandemic, TradeIndia, India’s largest B2B marketplace offering global buyers and sellers a reliable platform to identify trustworthy business partners, has initiated a first-of-its-kind virtual trade exposition that aims to usher new business opportunities and collaborations between the various brands and entities of the country.

The India’s leading online trade platform is leaving no stones unturned in helping the severely affected MSME sector reclaim lost footing and the state of the art virtual trade expo is verily a manifestation of this endearing endeavor. The exhibition will guide the industry towards transforming the unprecedented losses and chaos ensued by the pandemic into a favorable opportunity. By showcasing via the virtual medium, the various hidden growth prospects and lucrative openings that can be leveraged amidst the pandemic, TradeIndia is remarkably enough, covering the distance where none has ventured before.

The first day of the event itself proved instrumental in heralding a new ray of hope for the sector comprising of the various pandemic-affected SMEs and MSMEs. By extending unique solutions through combining technological promise and innovative brilliance, TradeIndia is seemingly aiding these small-ticket enterprises in maintaining business continuity in such chaotic times. The jubilant event witnessed a great number of business participants as it displayed the various essential products and the companies that manufacture them.By coupling the existing knowhow with the progressive tech-advancement and digitization, the event underlined the need for companies to constantly renovate and upgrade their current offerings. Besides focusing and brainstorming on the various innovative guidelines that companies can instill in their product development, the expo also revealed the various alternate channels of revenue for companies that are suitable for tapping into the current market dynamics.           

Sandip Chhettri, COO, TradeIndia said, “The trade expo hosted an expansive multitude of brands, their products through a virtual exhibition solution that allowed the exhibitors to demonstrate their products at a very low cost but with high scalability. The pioneering tradeshow also featured never-before-seen 3D stalls or immersive virtual spaces that enabled attendees to sift through the various product lineups, access business catalogues while interacting with exhibitors through chat or video conference”

The event organized by TradeIndia featured were surgical dressing and disposable, personal safety equipment, personal care products, common medicines and drugs, temperature instruments, medical, diagnostic & hospital supplies, home cleaning appliances, etc.

About TradeIndia: TradeIndia.com is an online Business to Business (B2B) portal for small businesses based in India and around the globe. The portal was started in 1996 by Bikky Khosla and is maintained and promoted under the flagship company, Infocom Network Ltd. The company is headquartered in New Delhi, India, and has branch offices in more than 42 cities across India.

Five Innovations to Witness At COVID19 Essential Expo India 2020

As several small and medium industries have been adversely impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 contagion in the country, the business community is roping in all efforts to stabilize the situation and rejuvenate the ailing economy. In a bid to transform the black swan COVID-19 pandemic into a lucrative business opportunity, TradeIndia, India’s largest B2B marketplace offering global buyers and sellers a reliable platform to identify trustworthy business partners, shall be organizing the country’s first virtual tradeshow titled, COVID-19 Essentials Expo India between August 5th-7th,2020 and will be conducted via the virtual medium.

The event will be targeted towards reviving the various SMEs and MSMEs of the country whose operations have been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tradeshow will feature 3D stalls or immersive virtual spaces that enable attendees to sift through the various product lineups, access business catalogs while interacting with exhibitors via chat or video conference.Featuring more than 60 booths and with an experience spanning over 20 years in online marketing space and event promotion, TradeIndia enjoys the largest industry database in the country that holds countless prospective visitors and investors for one’s brand. The essential range of products that will be central to the trade show are Surgical dressing and Disposable; Personal safety equipment; Personal care products; Common medicines and drugs; Temperature instruments; Medical, diagnostic & hospital supplies; Home cleaning appliances and more.

Here are 5 not to miss innovations to amaze you at the COVID19 Essential Expo India 2020:

JARVIS- Staqu Technologies Pvt. Ltd. - Utilizing the AI prowess, Staqu Technologies Pvt. Ltd. has developed a product, JARVIS that automates the whole process of monitoring the workplaces and ensuring that everybody is following these guidelines to minimize the spread of infections. JARVIS has proven to be one of the best Artificial Intelligence-based customizable Video Analytics Engine with state-of-the-art facial recognition technology and intelligent monitoring of objects, crowds, perimeters, and vehicles.This product utilizes, existing CCTV cameras and gives real-time alerts in case a person inside the premises is violating any of the norms. And the best part is that it doesn’t require any human interaction. JARVIS can help you with: Face Mask Identification, Social Distancing Check, Fever Identification (FR), Contact tracing, Hygiene Check, Video Wall with Real-Time Alerts, and more. 

UV and Delivery Disinfection Robots-  Janyu Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

UV disinfection technologies can play a role in a multiple barrier approach to reduce the transmission of the virus causing COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2. UV Disinfection Trolley can effectively clean up hospital spaces to combat COVID-19. The UV-C irradiation with a peak intensity at 254 nm has been a proven technology for disinfecting air, water, and instruments for over a century. UV-C JUGNU from JanyuTech is powered by UV-C lamps. UV-C JUGNU has a WiFi connection with a camera to get live Audio-Visuals of the path to the control station and interact along with the travel, announcing various messages. The Robot has a power selection option to increase the intensity of the UV system. Obstruction sensing is provided at the front and back for effective driving.

Testing Kits, Ivermectin Products, Antibacterial Soaps - Safecon Lifesciences - Based in excise free zone in Uttarakhand, Safecon Lifesciences is engaged in researching, manufacturing, and marketing all types of Injection, Bolus, internal & external Liquid, Powders, external powders & Shampoo for pets, etc. Their range of Medicare products is highly demanded in various government hospitals, private hospitals, dispensaries, etc. The Ivermectin salt and tablets are the Ivermectin products that customers can buy from them. These are prescribed for the treatment of parasitic infections of eyes, skin, and intestinal tract. The brand has also launched testing kits which are quite efficient to use.  Products like Corosafe soap is an antibacterial soap developed and supplied by our company. Everyone can use this soap just like normal bath soap to fight germs and body odor. Safecon Lifesciences has marked its prominence in Indian markets, by providing top-notch quality of products. 

N-95 and 3Ply Mask Making Machines-   BFW Kothari Group BFW was born in 1961 to realize the dream of a young economy that was on the cusp of industrialization. Ever since they have been at the heart of manufacturing. They have supported the growth of the Indian industry by creating the machine tools vital for industries, across verticals - from plastic buckets to aerospace projects.The N-95 and the 3 Ply Mask Making Machines are fully automatic, UV sterilized, and high speed. BFW developed High-Quality Automatic Mask Making Machines for high volume production of high-quality masks under the BFW Health product platform. Developed in Made-In-India Technology. These innovative products invented for the healthcare ecosystem in true spirit and full support of 'Aatma nirbhar Bharat'.

100% Cotton coverall with antimicrobial- Kinsey Knitt International  - Kinsey Knitt International’s 100% cotton washable reusable coverall is made out of coconut technology. The fabric is treated with Antimicrobial to fight against Virus, Bacteria, Fungus, Mould, and Dustmite. The coverall is treated with Splashproof technology so blood and other liquid particles can not penetrate in. This kit contains 10 components to safeguard the Covid-19 warriors with three things kept in mind.  Safety - treated with safe antimicrobial ; Comfort - Cotton gives comfort and Eco-friendly - A bio-degradable product. The antimicrobial we use in this Coverall is a semi-organic, food-grade, biodegradable product that kills the virus by its mechanical action. This doesn’t only filter the virus but it kills the virus which comes in contact. The virus killing time is less than a minute. And it has a virus killing efficiency of more than  99.95%. This Kit contains washable and reusable Masks, Goggles, face shield, Hand gloves, socks, shoe cover, hand towel, and a cotton antimicrobial treated bag to carry the worn products back. This coverall can be washed and reused up to 20 times.

BCT Digital Launches ‘IND AS 109 Product Suite’ to Tackle Expected Credit Loss

BCT Digital, a global Fintech company specializing in BFSI, Predictive Analytics, and Risk Management, has announced the launch of rt360-ECL solution from ‘IND AS 109 Product Suite’ for Expected Credit Loss (ECL) reporting. The rt360-ECL is an integral part of the IND AS 109 Product Suite and has been designed exclusively keeping in mind the unique and specific nuances of Indian Financial Institutions and the Indian Regulatory Environment.

With the introduction of the global International Financial Reporting Standards-9 (IFRS 9) and its equivalent Indian Accounting Standards (IND AS) 109, financial institutions are moving towards adopting scientific methods for computing credit losses. The first set of guidelines in this regard were issued by the RBI in February 2016, which  was followed by a series of amendments, and the latest one was issued in March 2020. This amendment announced the implementation of the Indian Accounting Standards, including IND AS 109 for NBFCs and Asset Reconstruction Companies.

IND AS 109 requires financial institutions to take the Expected Credit Loss (ECL) approach as opposed to the Incurred Loss approach. Under the ECL approach, credit losses must be granularly and systematically estimated and provided for throughout the life span of a loan. The rt360-ECL is a business-driven technology solution that enables banks to compute Expected Credit Loss as per regulatory guidelines, while addressing requirements such as Point-In-Time Probability of Default (PD), Validation and forward-looking estimates.

“During these unprecedented times, banks are facing huge credit losses as their customers suffer through the COVID-19 pandemic. Managing credit risk in a volatile financial market is very critical. If not carefully monitored, the systemic risks can easily snowball, and this can impact not only the banking network, but also the financial health of the country at a macroeconomic level. The rt360-ECL is an integral part of BCT Digital’s IND AS 109 product suite and has been exclusively designed keeping in mind the unique nature of the Indian regulatory environment and specific nuances of Indian financial institutions.” said  Jaya Vaidhyanathan, CEO at BCT Digital.

The rt360-ECL aggregates banks’ historical data and estimates parameters such as Probability of Default (PD), Loss Given Default (LGD) and Exposure at Default (EAD) and Effective Interest Rate (EIR). It’s inbuilt standard functions support validation and calibration of models to ensure that the process is efficient and robust. It’s essential value additions include automation of credit risk monitoring processes, faster turnaround time to achieve regulatory compliance and internal reporting and proactive credit risk assessment and monitoring. The core features of the rt360-ECL include computing 12 months’ and lifetime ECL for both fund-based and non-fund-based facilities; automated computation of Probability of Default, (Loss Given Default and Exposure at Default); Effective Interest Rate computation; automated validation of parameters as per RBI/Basel requirements through a pre-built library of model validation tests; integration with other solutions, such as core banking/Asset Liability Management systems& and prebuilt dashboards for management reporting. Click here for more information.

BCT Digital being a FinTech specialist and pioneer in risk management solutions aims to empower banks and financial institutions to recognize expected change in credit risk and provide a framework to manage forward-looking credit loss through the rt360 Risk Management Suite. rt360 risk products are a 100% “Made in India”, by BCT Digital, keeping in mind the complexity of internal and external risk factors faced by banks.

Aditya Birla Capital’s Subsidiaries Record Over Four Million Customer Interactions on Digital Service Platforms

Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL), the holding company of the financial services businesses of the Aditya Birla Group, recorded a significant rise in customer interactions on the digital channels of its subsidiaries. These interactions on platforms such as WhatsApp, Chatbots, Websites and Apps crossed the four million mark in the past three months during the Covid-19 lockdown, witnessing an almost 2X jump when compared to the same period last year. ABCL’s subsidiaries have been at the forefront of adopting new technologies for customer convenience. Several services like change of address on the website for the stock broking business or using WhatsApp for renewal of Health Insurance policies or registering SIPs for Mutual fund were introduced for the first time in the industry. The Mutual Fund business recently introduced Google Assistant based voice bot for the top customer queries. The Lending business and Mutual Fund business have developed a machine learning (ML) based email bot for automated servicing of over 30,000 customer queries a month

Over the last one year, ABCL’s subsidiaries have significantly ramped up their digital services across Websites, Chatbot and WhatsApp to ensure availability of over 94 per cent of their services online, as compared to about 71 per cent last year. This has been a huge advantage during the lockdown when customer and distributor onboarding and purchase journeys have been enabled digitally. The WhatsApp/Chatbot channel is now one of the most comprehensive in the financial services industry, offering over 180 services across the mutual fund, lending, housing finance, life insurance and health insurance businesses. The businesses witnessed WhatsApp emerging as one of the most preferred channels, with almost a million customer interactions since March’ 20.

Ajay Srinivasan, Chief Executive, Aditya Birla Capital, said, “Digital enablement to create a superior customer experience throughout the customer journey has been a key part of our agenda. This enabled us to proactively transform our customer journeys to being 100% digital during the period of lockdown. These capabilities held us in good stead when COVID hit the world and helped us to service our customers without any interruptions. We will continue to leverage new technologies to make our customer and distributor experience best in class.”    

Owing to the ongoing lockdown, there has been a shift in demand for zero contact and paperless purchase options. Last year ABCL’s subsidiaries had worked on developing non-contact, paperless, seamless purchase journeys across product lines through mobile apps and tabs. Many technologies such as biometrics, intelligent OCR, Video KYC, e-contracts were used for the first time in the industry. The NBFC and Mutual Fund businesses have been one of the first in the industry to launch video KYC for its customers. Over 90 per cent customers were on-boarded through digital channels alone in FY20, as compared to 72 per cent in FY19. The businesses deployed over 200 robotic processes (RPA) to automate mid-office and back office work.

India Transitions to ‘Purpose-Driven’ Entrepreneurship from ‘Necessity-Driven’ Entrepreneurship: GEM Report

Report 

* The country ranks high on three out of four parameters introduced by GEM Consortium to understand motives behind starting a business

* India ranks first among 50 economies with around 87% of total early-stage entrepreneurs agreeing ‘to make a difference in the world’ as their motive to start their business

India has transitioned to a ‘Purpose-driven’ entrepreneurship from ‘Necessity-driven’ entrepreneurship as depicted by the latest ranking of the country in three out of four parameters introduced by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) consortium. GEM Consortium, which studies entrepreneurship ecosystem in 50 countries every year, has incorporated four parameters in 2019-20 Adult Population Survey (APS) to fully reflect the nuances in motivations for founding contemporary start-ups.

India ranks first among 50 economies with around 87% of the total early-stage entrepreneurs agreeing ‘to make a difference in the world’ as their motive to start their business. In other two parameters ‘to build great wealth or very high income’ and ‘to continue a family tradition’; the country ranks third and second respectively with 87% and 80% agreeing for above as their motive. In the fourth parameter ‘to earn a living because jobs are scarce’; the country ranks tenth.

“Over the last few years, the approach towards entrepreneurship in India has largely been positive and is gaining strength among all stakeholders of the ecosystem. The entrepreneurship in India was mainly constrained to family businesses until a decade ago. However, today the ecosystem is much favourable to start-ups who want to chart their territory and build a business. Supportive government policies, positive perception of the society towards start-ups and availability of funds from the financial community has given much confidence to entrepreneurs for opting to start a business with a specific ‘purpose’ in mind, rather than just another option to the job,” said Dr. Sunil Shukla, Team Leader, GEM India and Director General, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII).

“Until 2018, GEM had distinguished opportunity and necessity as primary motivations for entrepreneurial activity. However, this distinction didn’t fully reflect the motivation behind starting the business and hence in 2019, the global consortium decided to further add parameters that could provide an insight into entrepreneur’s mind behind starting a business,” said Dr. Amit Dwivedi, Member, GEM India and Faculty, EDII.

“The fact that India ranks higher in parameters other than that related to job scarcity proves that the country is moving from necessity-driven to purpose-driven entrepreneurship. Going forward, the strengthening ecosystem will ensure the country moves into next phase of ‘innovation-driven’ entrepreneurship, which is the last step for any economy to become a country of job-creators, rather than job-generators,” said Dr. Pankaj Bharti, Member, GEM India and Faculty, EDII.

Companies are increasingly being held accountable for their environmental and social impacts and for their contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the majority of countries, entrepreneurs agree to most of the parameters listed above as their raison d’être for starting a new business, which is substantive evidence of ‘purpose-driven’ entrepreneurship taking hold at the grassroots level an encouraging sign of a collective will for future business sustainability.

IT services deal signed between GE, Mahindra Satyam

Mahindra Satyam today said it has received an extension of its multi-million dollar contract with GE for next three years January 1, 2010.

GE, which is among the top five customers of Mahindra Satyam for over a decade now, gets support in the specialised areas of Application Development Maintenance, Business Intelligence and engineering services, Satyam Mahindra said in a statement.

"We thank the leadership at GE, for having reposed their confidence in us, and reinforce our resolve to excel in our deliverables to our esteemed partner, for years to come," Mahindra Satyam Global Account Executive Arvind Malhotra said.

GE has signed a similar contract with 11 other vendors. "GE recognizes the support extended over the years by Mahindra Satyam, and their commitment to delivery excellence, even during trying times," GE GDC Leader Steve Morrison said.

Satyam management had been in constant dialogue with its major clients, including GE and others to continue working with it.

"Mahindra Satyam has gained 32 new customers in the last four months," a top official had said earlier.

"Some of the large clients we had lost earlier are coming back and are reassigning new business," Atul Kunwar, the company's president of the Middle East, Europe, India and Asia Pacific regions, said on the sidelines of an industry conference.

The company, currently has about 420 clients, he said, compared with 480 in January before it was left battling for survival after Satyam's founder revealed India's biggest corporate fraud.

Satyam was acquired by Tech Mahindra in an auction in April and subsequently renamed. The number of employees the company has on reserve has come down to 7,000 from 8,500 in July, Kunwar said.

"With the business improving and new deals coming in, we have slowly started taking in employees from the virtual pool."

Agencies

Lawson to make a dent in the Indian ERP market

Lawson Software, the Minnesota-based third largest ERP company has entered the Indian market as part of the strategy to attract regional partners to serve customers.

According to a Gartner reports, India's ERP market is pegged at $143 million and is growing at 14-15 percent on a yearly basis. With more companies emerging in the infrastructure space, Lawson has opened an office in New Delhi to expand in the region. It has also appointed Kamal Sharma as its regional head for Lawson South Asia.

Talking to CIOL, Harry Debes, president & CEO of Lawson Software said, "we were predominantly a US-based company but have gone global since and have presence in about 33 countries. We see huge opportunities in India and other BRIC countries and expect to grow at a steady pace."

The company is already serving customers in India and Sri Lanka through partnerships with Symphony Services and ETP International and plans to draw on the expertise of more local partners and provide sales and marketing support via its India office.

"Even though ERP major Lawson opens India office have had their presence in India for several years, still we are sure of gaining a sizeable market share in the coming years through our partnership," remarks Debes.

In fact, the company entered India way back in 1994 and has about 25 customers existing in India and hopes to now focus on the mid-level customers. "Walmart, the leading global retail giants is one of Lawson's big corporate customers, so not necessarily targeting only on mid-sized or big corporates but will remain focused on new companies in fashion, F&B, healthcare, public sector verticals in India," says Sharma.

But on specific verticals like the healthcare segment where in Lawson claims to have about a 60 percent market share in the USA, the company is looking for active partners in the healthcare industry mainly for back office. Likewise, it has already signed up with ITC, Reliance Retail, PTEX in the fashion and garment vertical and KPIT Cummins in the equipment service and retail segments. It also has TBA in the food & beverages (F&B), Symphony in the distribution & manufacturing and likely to enter in the other segments also shortly.

The company plans to employ four initially at its Delhi office and grow over the years. On the global front, the company is expected to grow its headcount by 15 percent in 2008.

Lawson currently has offices in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and also in Thailand.

Opt for better technology to stay agile

Syntel has joined hands with Relativity Technologies for the modernizeation workbench platform to deliver enhanced system transparency and business efficiency.

Syntel Inc., a global information technology services and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) company, has selected Relativity Technologies' Modernization Workbench platform to support its rapidly growing application maintenance and migration practices.

Market pressures demand that companies stay agile in the face of an increasingly competitive global economy, but many core application portfolios are inflexible and inefficient, which hampers an organization's ability to adapt. A successful modernization effort requires first gathering a great deal of intelligence on the application portfolio.

A recent report by Forrester noted that "emerging application management disciplines such as application portfolio management (APM), application dependency mapping (ADM), and other portfolio disciplines are changing the way CIOs think about applications under maintenance and all work done in IT." The report continued, stating that "…increasingly, corporate management is tapping information to help distinguish the applications that should be kept and modernized from those that must be replaced and retired."

In order to help its customers make these difficult decisions, Syntel has integrated Relativity Technologies' Modernization Workbench into its Application Maintenance and Migration Centers of Excellence.

The Modernization Workbench is a market-leading suite of applications that analyzes a diverse array of legacy mainframe, mid-range and distributed applications and captures application data and business rules in a centralized repository. It generates rich technical and business intelligence about clients' application portfolios, which can be used to gain an insight into how well an organization's systems align with their business goals, enhancing Syntel's ability to deliver efficiency to clients' core business processes.

Syntel has successfully migrated the core operations of numerous Fortune 500 companies to more efficient architectures, and the Modernization Workbench promises to accelerate future initiatives by discovering, isolating, and reusingmission-critical business processes within a service-oriented architecture.

"We believe enterprises today understand that a legacy modernization strategy is crucial for maximizing the value of their investment. Application modernization can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership and align IT investments with business imperatives," said Keshav Murugesh, Syntel President and COO.

"After an intense, ROI-focused evaluation, we decided to standardize our migration framework on the Modernization Workbench. Syntel is pleased to partner with Relativity Technologies, and we look forward to expanding our deployment of this technology," said Murugesh.

"Syntel's adoption of the Modernization Workbench is a major validation of our technology," said Steve Maysonave, Chairman, President, and CEO of Relativity Technologies. "Our combined solution amounts to business intelligence for application portfolios, and enables outsourcers and clients to collaboratively address core business challenges. The result is an application warehouse that improves IT governance, efficiency and alignment with strategic goals like agility, security, and regulatory compliance."