Binance Launches “Build For Bharat”; First DeFi-Focused Digital Hackathon in Indian Market

Binance, the global blockchain company behind the world’s largest digital asset exchange, today launched ‘Build for Bharat’, a twofold program with a hackathon and acceleration opportunities for blockchain developers and startups in India.

The hackathon is sponsored by Google Cloud, along with leading technology companies Matic Network, Marlin Protocol, Band Protocol and Ankr cloud infrastructure, while the acceleration comes under Polaris, an initiative by the Blockchain for India 50M fund, launched by Binance and WazirX in March 2020.

Spanning over a few months  -- from 24th August to 31st October 2020 -- the Build for Bharat hackathon will be open to creators, innovators, startups, and BUIDLers from all over India working on unique and creative products utilizing digital assets and blockchain technology. The solutions will be centered around decentralized finance (DeFi) such as mini-Tokens, micro-financing products, blockchain datasets, blockchain-AI solutions and more.

“India has been one of the most interesting countries Binance has tapped into!” said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ). “We’ve seen entrepreneurs create robust blockchain-based solutions from scratch and scale it. With the second-largest blockchain developer base in the world - India has already kickstarted the revolution of decentralization and we’re here to fuel it!”

Selected participants will undergo three stages of filtration with 100 teams shortlisted in the first cohort, 20 teams in the second, and five teams in the final cohort. The finalists will receive rewards from a pool of 30,00,000 INR while the winning teams stand a chance to secure additional investment and mentorship opportunities under the Polaris accelerator, an initiative by the Blockchain for India fund.

To apply for Build for Bharat program, head over to the event registration website. Registrations for the program are open from today till 11th September 2020.

[The event is managed by Lumos Labs (Formerly known as IBC Media) - A Singapore-based innovation management platform.]

About Binance

Binance.com is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. Binance Exchange serves users from 180+ countries and regions. Binance’s dual-chain architecture comprises Binance Chain & Binance Smart Chain that empowers the developer community to build their own decentralized apps and digital assets on one blockchain, while also taking advantage of the fast trading performance offered on the Binance Decentralized Exchange (DEX).

Ness Digital Engineering Expands Partnership with Snowflake in India

Ness Digital Engineering has announced it is expanding its partnership with Snowflake, the cloud data platform. Ness earned “Select” partner status and this enhanced strategic alliance expands Ness’s robust suite of data analytics and artificial intelligence solutions at a time when customers of all sizes and industries are demanding more business value from their data.

Snowflake’s support for data warehousing workloads provides a low maintenance, cost effective way for organizations to consolidate all their data silos into a single source of truth, allowing Ness to deliver near real time, data-driven insights to help clients achieve desired business outcomes.

Scott Schlesinger, Senior Vice President and Global Head of the Data and Analytics Practice at Ness Digital Engineering, says, “Snowflake’s dedicated storage and computing engines enable advanced data analytics capabilities that we use to help customers realize the power of their data and improve productivity and increase revenue. Combining the power of Snowflake with Ness’s deep modernization capabilities and AI accelerator presents a formidable offering to our customers looking to expedite time to market for data and analytics solutions and seamlessly execute transformative projects.”

Ness’s status as an Amazon Web Services Advanced partner, Microsoft Azure Gold partner and Google Cloud partner allows the company to bring Snowflake’s instant, frictionless, secure sharing of live data – within and between organizations – to all its clients embarking on their data warehouse modernization journey. Snowflake’s cloud data platform requires zero management for all the customer’s data and users in a cost-effective and scalable “pay only for what you use” structure.

Katie Ecklund, Director of NoAm Partners, Snowflake, comments, “Ness’s expertise in data and analytics plays a critical role in helping organizations engage customers and differentiate their brands,’ positioning them as an important member of Snowflake’s partner community. Ness has innovation hubs and delivery teams around the world, providing a global footprint that can work with Snowflake’s enterprise customers across geographic boundaries to increase the value of their digital solutions.”

upGrad’s New TV & Digital Campaign is a Clarion Call to the 100M Indian Workforce to Grow with Specialisation & Not with Licking

upGrad, India’s largest online higher education company, unveils its latest mass media campaign, which can be considered as one of the most clutter-breaking & bold campaigns done by a brand in the recent past. The TV commercial, featuring a donkey, draws from the cultural insight that in the corporate world, everyone wants to climb the ladder and choose various ways to get ahead - one of the most common being the tendency to ‘lick ass’.

Shot in Estonia, the humorous yet charming film has been developed by the creative agency, The Womb & has been directed by Shashanka Chaturvedi, a.k.a Bob, co-founder & director, Good Morning Films, who has worked on close to 100 ads in India and won two Gold Lions at Cannes - the first by an Indian filmmaker and a Grand Prix at Spikes Asia, the upGrad's film marks the first in his career where he directed the shoot crew, including the endearing animal, remotely from Goa, where he has been shooting ads since a month now. 

“Our primary objective is to define the kind of education upGrad provides, that is not constricted by the mode of learning - which just happens to be online. The next ambition was to compellingly summarise all the types of courses we provide - post-graduate degrees, certifications and diplomas. We chose the word ‘degree’ because in India, the concept of a ‘degree’ holds emotional and practical heft across all socio-economic classes. While degrees are available a dime a dozen, the conflict occurs when they tend to be generic, outdated and from not so credible institutions, that are ultimately not valued by employers. Thus, the genesis of ‘Sirf naam ki nahin, kaam ki degree’ - upGrad’s promise to provide outcome-oriented specialisations that help learners to achieve the ROI on education – job/profile switch, increment or promotion, in other words, Employability” said Arjun Mohan, CEO - India, upGrad.

Talking about the campaign, Kawal Shoor, Co-Founder, The Womb said, “upGrad and The Womb got together a few months back to start working on building its brand and business in India. COVID-19 has hastened the need for edtech as a category. upGrad is a very substantive brand in the midst of many lightweight educational institutions that have mushroomed all over India. It has a great culture, knows how to teach, and has tie-ups with some of the best universities in India, and the world. It can fulfil the learning needs of working professionals and undergraduates. We had to bring its various offerings under one, clear positioning idea for the brand that stems from and can influence culture. This spot introduces that idea, along with a clear proposition for working professionals."

"upGrad's Data Science and Management programs for working professionals have great pedigree with tie-ups with institutions like IIIT Bangalore, IIT Madras, and Deakin Business School. To make this resonate culturally, we borrowed from culture - work/corporate culture to be specific. We uncovered a very rich insight - in organisations, those who're not good enough to find other means to rise. We built our proposition around this insight. What was even more challenging was to find a way to execute this in a lockdown - so what you'll see, are Indian-origin actors from the UK, performing in an office in Estonia, being remotely directed from a villa in Goa. The clients at upGrad have to be complimented for believing,” added Navin Talreja, Co-Founder, The Womb.

The performance-driven media planning on TV channels is being executed by the agency DCMN and on OTTs and Google platforms by Tatvic Analytics. The mass media campaign will also be complemented by narrative-driven influencer campaign on social media, which the company officials has not revealed yet. In partnership with HTTPool & Twitter India, upGrad also has rolled out an emoji campaign wherein one of the key brand attributes (KBA) - a red arrow moving upwards will be automatically added to upskilling related hashtags when tweeted by any user worldwide during the campaign period.

ZEE5 Welcomes India on HiPi; A Stairway for the Next Billion Indian Creators to Stardom

 

Platform for Stardom 

* ZEE5, India’s Entertainment Super-App presents a destination for all age Indian creators ~

* HiPi onboards 400+ influencers, with 70+ Zee TV celebrities and will add 100+ by December 2020~

An Atmanirbhar Bharat! A statement, a dream, a vision that many Indians today envisage to achieve. From Indian organizations to Individuals, all are aspiring to make this self-reliance mantra a reality. ZEE5, India’s very own Entertainment Super-App began this journey over a year and a half ago to make it a reality wherein, it could present to the next billion Indians, a platform to create fun and entertaining content – connect with their millions of fans and stand a chance to step into the real fandom world.

A platform which will be the official Home of Entertainment and Entertainers!

Today, ZEE5’s much awaited project, is getting launched with the Beta rollout of HiPi - the short video platform, that promises to engage billions of Indians to embark on a journey from just being a FAN to achieving FANDOM! In the era of the Atmanirbhar Bharat, where users can be themselves and have fun in a brand safe, extremely creative and happy environment. HiPi is a perfect platform for content consumers, to content creators.

The platform has been envisioned and created in India for the diversely unique Indian audience after extensive research. A home to multiple features, that enables the users to showcase their talent through various unique filters and effects, also discover, follow and appreciate content that is being created by others. The unique format and technology that HiPi has integrated with its interface and navigation will allow users to create videos up to 90-seconds. A full-fledged release will be done in a phased manner with the Beta version for Android going live today, followed by the iOS version in the coming weeks.

Speaking on the momentous launch, Mr. Tarun Katial, CEO, ZEE5 India said, “The launch of HiPi is a proud moment for us as the short video platform was developed in India keeping with the ethos of Atmanirbhar Bharat. HiPi revolutionizes the entertainment experience, by giving a universally accessible platform to unmask the latent talent present inside each of us, taking us from being a Fan to Fandom! Continuing with a focus on customer centricity, HiPi will help Indians to connect with their millions of fans and stand a chance to step into the real Fandom world. A platform which will be the official Home of Entertainment and entertainers! As we go live today, HiPi takes ZEE5 one step closer to its ambition of becoming India’s Entertainment Super-App!”

Echoing these sentiments, Mr. Rajneel Kumar, Business Head - Expansion Projects and Head of Products, ZEE5 India added, “The vision for HiPi stemmed from an idea to further grow ZEE5 as a one-stop destination for the new and dynamic India. And a lot of care has been taken to build this platform to enable a creatively charged environment which simultaneously empowers the creators, users, brands and viewers alike. The framework of the platform has been created to encourage more creativity and engagement while also making sure that the security and safety of our users are never compromised. It is a platform truly made in India, made for India.”

HiPi has added various security features to make sure that safety is never compromised. With the entire framework made such, it is truly set to empower India by giving the audiences a platform where their talent will get the stage and reach; and even allow brands to discover and connect with a diverse set of audiences across the length and breadth of the country.

HiPi promises to be a platform that will redefine content creation and curation. It will be a  platform where every Indian will have a chance to showcase their creativity and announce their arrival in the global creative arena.

Discovery Channel India Celebrates 25 Yrs of Exploration & Curiosity

Throughout its 25-year history in India, Discovery Channel has held strong to its commitment to tell its viewers the most amazing stories, introduce them to some of the most fascinating people and creatures on the planet, and transport them to most breathtaking locations in the world. On August 15, 2020, Discovery will commemorate its 25th anniversary in India by hosting celebrations on air, online and in the heart of communities around the country. To mark the milestone, Discovery has launched a new campaign #KeepExploring with noted actor Rahul Bose doing the voice-over. The network is also unveiling a slew of blue-chip documentaries and specials across genres such as Adventure, Survival, Mystery, and Wildlife to celebrate the 25th anniversary. The breath-taking line-up for the next few months includes titles including ‘Into The Wild with Bear Grylls’, ‘Expedition Unknown’, ‘Savage Builds’, ‘Mysteries at the Museum’,’ Body Hack S3’ and ‘Walking The Elephants’ among many more.

“Discovery is dedicated to satisfying curiosity, engaging and entertaining viewers with high-quality content. In these twenty-five years, Discovery has emerged as the foremost, the most trusted broadcaster in real-life entertainment in the country,” said, Megha Tata, Managing Director – South Asia, Discovery. “We are proud to say that Discovery has ignited the passion inside all of us to be curious, explore and be more engaged with the natural world.  We will further accelerate our efforts to showcase never-seen-before Premium Discovery titles, must-watch documentaries, India originals and exclusive acquisitions.”

“I have been a passionate Discovery watcher and fed hugely on science, travel and nature shows when the channel was initially launched in India. Being a part of this campaign took me down memory lane – How The Universe Works, Man vs Wild…I can go on,” said, Rahul Bose. “I love the thought #KeepExploring - because that’s what Discovery leads you to do - explore new places, new concepts, new ideas for the future that you never dreamt existed. It urges people to go beyond the limits of human imagination.”

Over the past 25 years, Discovery has launched iconic, all-time favorite shows, such as ‘Morgan Freeman’s Through The Wormhole’, ‘How The Universe Works’, ‘How It’s Made’, ‘How Do They Do It?’, ‘Storm Chasers’, ‘You Have Been Warned’, ‘Man Vs Wild’, ‘MythBusters’, ‘Expedition Unknown’, ‘Walking The Himalayas’, ‘River Monsters’ and ‘Gold Rush’ et al.

In India, the channel has launched series of impactful shows on Indian armed forces including ‘India’s Paratroopers – Earning the Badge’, ‘Revealed: LOC’,’ Battle Ops’, ‘Revealed: National Defence Academy’, ‘Revealed Siachen’, and 1965: India’s Battles and Heroes’  and Breaking Point franchise on ‘Air Force Academy’, ‘Indian Submariners’, ‘High Altitude Warfare School’, ‘Women Fighter Pilots’ and ‘Commando School Belgaum’.  Discovery’s ‘Man vs Wild with Prime Minister Modi’ is the highest rated show in the genre till date followed by ‘Into The Wild with Bear Grylls and Superstar Rajinikanth’.

Discovery Channel was launched in India on 15th August 1995.  India’s most trusted and leading infotainment channel is available in seven languages including Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali. Discovery India, today, offers 14 channels, and has recently launched India’s first real-life entertainment streaming application Discovery Plus.

Get Your Dance Mode On with Remo D’Souza at Cure.fit Live Digital Fitness Offering

 

* Cure.fit to launch ‘Moves Like Remo’ with Remo D’Souza under its Cure.fit live digital fitness offering

* Audiences can learn Bollywood, Street Style and Remo Special in a 4-part series starting 14th August

In what will be a perfect mix of dance, fitness and entertainment, fans of Cure.fit’s hugely popular Dance Fitness format can now get their dance mode on like never before with one of India’s most popular dancers—Remo D’Souza. A new 4-part show called ‘Moves Like Remo’ will be launched on the Cure.fit app from 14th August onwards with explosive sessions taught by the best in the business.  

In this 4-part series, Remo will teach audiences dance fitness routines across 3 popular styles—Bollywood, Street Style, and Remo Special—which will culminate in a Finale Dance Party blending all three. Moreover, he will also share exclusive behind the scenes stories from the most popular dance numbers as choreographed by him for the best in Bollywood.

These special episodes will go live on the app at 6pm on 14th, 24th and 31st August with the Finale Dance Party airing on 7th September. Each session guarantees an energetic workout session in 50 minutes at the end of which Remo will also teach a “FitStep” or a signature dance step to the audience. Attendees also have a chance to get featured in a 3-minute dance video curated by Remo which will feature clips of various customers dancing to different parts of the song.

The launch of ‘Moves like Remo’ is another step forward in the Cure.fit live fitness journey and adds another renowned name to its growing list of celebrity trainers. Cure.fit started offering live fitness classes across its various formats once the lockdown commenced in mid-March. On 3rd April, Cure.fit also launched its Cure.fit live Masterclasses—a series of workouts by a stellar lineup of celebrities, athletes, sportspersons, and other famous influencers such as Mandira Bedi, Yasmin Karachiwala, PV Sindhu, Mary Kom, Jonty Rhodes, Nora Fatehi, and so on.

Commenting on the launch of this new segment, Naresh Krishnaswamy, Growth & Marketing Head, Cure.fit, said: “We are so happy to have Remo D’Souza join in on our Cure.fit live journey with this exclusive 4-part special. Our users really enjoy the Dance Fitness format because it makes getting fit extremely fun and cuts through the monotony of regular workouts. Learning some dance moves from a renowned dancer like Remo will surely generate excitement and interest from the audience.”

Speaking on this collaboration, Remo D’Souza said: "I am who I am because of my audience. After being a judge for several years on dance shows, I felt that my viewers needed a more personal one-on-one interaction with me. This association with Cure.fit gives me the perfect platform to offer a more connected experience to my audience in my original avatar as a dancer and a choreographer. I am really happy to be a part of this initiative."

About Cure.fit

Cure.fit Healthcare Pvt Ltd is a holistic integrated healthcare platform headquartered in Bangalore. Founded in 2016 by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, Cure.fit aims to address preventive healthcare through a combination of engagement, coaching and delivery using a mix of online and offline channels. Cure.fit caters to living a healthy life through four critical dimensions—eat.fit, mind.fit, cult.fit and care.fit. While cult.fit focuses on physical strength and fitness, eat.fit focuses on healthy and nutritive food, mind.fit on mental wellbeing and care.fit on integrated medical and lifestyle care. Cure.fit is an app-based service provider and is available on Android and iOS.

Mswipe Launches “Bank Box” to Revolutionize the Digital Payment Landscape for SMEs

 * New affordable offerings comprising of zero rental and zero MDR solutions

* Small businesses can collect and pay digitally even without a bank account

* Enters issuance business with Mswipe Moneyback Card to help merchants earn as they spend

* One-time digital KYC for hassle free and instant signup

Mswipe announced today the launch of Bank Box, a digital acceptance and payment solution designed to meet the cost-centric needs of MSMEs and merchants, as well as provide for a seamlessly integrated experience. Through this launch, Mswipe aims to pave the way for a futuristic payment solution platform and address key challenges that merchants and MSMEs face, with recurring costs on POS terminals like PoS rentals and Merchant Discount Rate (MDR).

Mswipe, India’s largest merchant acquirer with a network of 6.75 lakh POS and 1.1 million QR merchants, set out with the vision to build a cutting edge product – one that combines their acquiring and issuing platforms into a one-stop-shop, “Bank Box”, which enables easy signup, instant activation of the terminal and lifetime zero rental and zero effective MDR for merchants.

Manish Patel, Founder and CEO, Mswipe said, “COVID-19 has significantly impacted the earnings of small businesses, which in turn has led to curbed expenditures from their end. As a market innovator, Mswipe is helping MSMEs and merchants control costs incurred while accepting digital payments and further incentivize them to make digital payments. Essentially, Mswipe’s Bank Box facilitates small, medium and micro businesses to break into the digital ecosystem at the lowest possible TCO and sign up - even if they do not have a bank account.”

With a one-time digital KYC, businesses can choose between Bank Box Go - a POS solution with zero rental and zero MDR or Bank Box Lite - a QR solution with 0 rental and 1% cashback on all transactions and instantly go live. In both offerings a merchant gets a UPI QR and a Moneyback Card. Bank Box Go additionally provides an affordable mPOS capable of accepting chip + pin and contactless card payments. For Bank Box Go merchants have to pay a one-time fee of Rs. 4,000 plus taxes while for Bank Box Lite, they pay only Rs.199 plus taxes.

Sameer Hoda, President, Strategy and Operations, Mswipe said, “With Bank Box we have democratized the digital acceptance and payments ecosystem for the smallest of businesses by giving them a choice. With Mswipe now both an acquirer and issuer, we have provided an end-to-end digital enablement of MSMEs and merchants and empowered them to join the Digital Bharat movement.”

While mPOS allows acceptance of multiple modes of payments including UPI, Visa, Mastercard and American Express, mQR accepts payments from more than 150 UPI and mobile banking apps like PayTM, Axis Bank and BHIM among others. To spend digitally, merchants can load their Mcard with up to Rs. 1,00,000 per month.

Mswipe is targeting merchants with an average daily digital collection of Rs. 2,000 - Rs.2,500 in tier 3-4 markets and Rs. 8,000 - Rs. 10,000 in Metro and semi-urban areas.

About Mswipe:

Mswipe aims to be India’s largest financial services platform for SMEs and merchants by providing seamless mobile POS and value-added Services. It is the largest independent mobile POS merchant acquirer and network provider with 6.75 lakh POS and 1 million QR merchants across the country. Mswipe offers a host of POS solutions for all types of payment acceptance - cards, wallets, mobile payment apps and bank apps, contactless and QR payments. Headquartered in Mumbai, Mswipe began operations in 2011. Its key investors include B Capital, UC-RNT, Falcon Edge Capital, Matrix Partners India, DSG Partners and Epiq Capital. 

GitHub Archive Program: The Journey of the World’s Open Source Code to the Arctic

At GitHub Universe 2019, we introduced the GitHub Archive Program along with the GitHub Arctic Code Vault. Our mission is to preserve open source software for future generations by storing your code in an archive built to last a thousand years.

On February 2, 2020, we took a snapshot of all active public repositories on GitHub to archive in the vault. Over the last several months, our archive partners Piql, wrote 21TB of repository data to 186 reels of piqlFilm (digital photosensitive archival film). Our original plan was for our team to fly to Norway and personally escort the world’s open source code to the Arctic, but as the world continues to endure a global pandemic, we had to adjust our plans. We stayed in close contact with our partners, waiting for the time when it was safe for them to travel to Svalbard. We’re happy to report that the code was successfully deposited in the Arctic Code Vault on July 8, 2020. 

Join us as we follow the code in its journey to the Arctic, and take a look at a few other things we’ve been up to here at the GitHub Archive Program. 

The journey of the world’s open source code to the Arctic Circle  

Your code’s journey begins in Piql’s facility in Drammen, Norway where the boxes with 186 film reels were shipped to Oslo Airport and then loaded into the belly of the plane which provides passenger service to Svalbard. Svalbard, roughly 600 miles (1000 km) north of the European mainland, just recently opened up to visitors from countries within the Schengen Area and the European Economic Area.

The code landed in Longyearbyen, a town of a few thousand people on Svalbard, where our boxes were met by a local logistics company and taken into intermediate secure storage overnight. The next morning, it traveled to the decommissioned coal mine set in the mountain, and then to a chamber deep inside hundreds of meters of permafrost, where the code now resides fulfilling their mission of preserving the world’s open source code for over 1,000 years.

Introducing the Arctic Code Vault Badge   

Millions of developers around the world contributed to the open source software now stored in the Arctic Code Vault. To recognize and celebrate these contributions, we designed the Arctic Code Vault Badge, which is shown in the highlights section of a developer’s profile on GitHub. Hover and you can discover some of the repositories an individual contributed to.

An update from our Archive Program partners 

The Internet Archive is a well-known, widely beloved non-profit digital library which provides free public access to collections of digitized materials. In partnership with the GitHub Archive Program, the Internet Archive (IA) commenced its ongoing archive of GitHub public repositories on April 13 of this year. At present, IA is using a two-pronged approach. First, their well-known Wayback Machine is accessing and archiving raw GitHub data as WARCs, or Web ARChive files. As of this writing they have archived some 55TB of data. Second, they have the goal of making entire archived GitHub repositories available via “git clone,” while also keeping repo comments, issues, and other metadata easily accessible on the web. This second initiative is well underway and initial archiving is expected to commence this month.

Software Heritage is a non profit, multi-stakeholder initiative launched by Inria in collaboration with UNESCO with the goal to collect, preserve and share the source code of our software commons. They already archive more than 130 million projects, with their full development history, and we are delighted to announce that 100 million of these are from GitHub. Thanks to the collaboration announced at GitHub Universe 2019, the archival engine is being improved with the goal to keep it up to speed with GitHub‘s growth, but if the project you are interested in, or its latest version, is not archived yet, you do not need to wait, it’s easy to trigger its archival right now in a few clicks on https://save.softwareheritage.org. 

Project Silica is developing the first storage technology designed and built from the media up for cloud-scale storage of long-lived data. By leveraging recent discoveries in ultrafast laser optics, data is stored in quartz glass, through a process that permanently changes the physical structure of the glass material. Quartz glass is a durable storage media that offers unparalleled data lifetimes of upwards of tens of thousands of years. It is resilient to electromagnetic interference, water, and heat, making it the ideal storage medium for ensuring the world’s open source software is forever preserved for future generations. As a partner in the GitHub Archive Program, Project Silica is committed to driving storage innovation, and developing a storage technology that addresses the need for a sustainable and reliable storage technology for the world’s long-lived data. We’ve archived 6,000 of the world’s most popular repositories as a proof of concept for future archives.  

What’s next? 

Code, culture, history, and technology: The Tech Tree

Every reel of the archive includes a copy of the “Guide to the GitHub Code Vault” in five languages, written with input from GitHub’s community and available at the Archive Program’s own GitHub repository. In addition, the archive will include a separate human-readable reel which documents the technical history and cultural context of the archive’s contents. We call this the Tech Tree. Inspired by the Long Now’s Manual for Civilization, the Tech Tree will consist primarily of existing works, selected to provide a detailed understanding of modern computing, open source and its applications, modern software development, popular programming languages, etc. It will also include works which explain the many layers of technical foundations that make software possible: microprocessors, networking, electronics, semiconductors, and even pre-industrial technologies. This will allow the archive’s inheritors to better understand today’s world and its technologies, and may even help them recreate computers to use the archived software. Encapsulating the world’s cultural context and technical history is a challenging prospect, and we expect the Tech Tree to evolve and iterate over time. We will soon publish to the Archive Program’s GitHub repository a very initial draft list of works selected for the Tech Tree, along with, importantly, a request for community input. We look forward to incorporating ideas and suggestions from the GitHub community before the Tech Tree is added to the Arctic Code Vault.

‘Atmanirbharta by Tata Motors’ - A Digital Campaign Vocalising the Need for Local

 

Tata Motors, India’s leading auto brand in association with WATConsult, the globally awarded hybrid digital agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) India, today announced the launch of ‘Atmanirbharta by Tata Motors’ – a digital campaign highlighting the existence of localisation in everything that we do. Designed and conceptualised by WATConsult, this campaign has been released ahead of the glorious occasion of India’s 74th Independence Day and emphasises on the meaning of ‘Atmanirbharta’ or self-reliance for individuals and the nation as a whole.

Solidifying the brand’s stance for the ‘Vocal for Local’ initiative, the campaign is headlined by a video, which begins with a very young boy named Rohan shown seated in the rear seat of a Tata Nexon, while his father is driving him across the town. The son inquisitively asks his father, “Atmanirbharta kya hoti hai?” i.e. “What does Atmanirbharta mean?”. By showing a range of occupations to his son, the father makes him understand that Atmanirbharta means being self-reliant in all aspects of life and that it applies to people from all walks of life – be it a toymaker, bangle vendor, scientist or an engineer from ISRO, who sequentially appear in the film. The video ends with the display of Tata Motors’ New Forever range near a hoisted Indian flag, exemplifying the Company’s ability to deliver best in class products that cater to the local needs & tastes while evolving with time and being ever popular with customers. 

Adding to the above, ‘Atmanirbharta by Tata Motors’ highlights that reaching the goal of being self-reliant is not an individualistic responsibility, but a collective one that falls on the shoulders of the entire country. 

Commenting on the launch of this campaign, Mr. Vivek Srivatsa, Head Marketing, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicle Business Unit said, “Tata Motors has always been known as an automotive brand that is a flag bearer for products that caters to the Indian customer. Our cars are manufactured locally and provide world class Design, Safety and Driving pleasure to all. We are proud to be at the forefront of the conversation of being ‘Vocal for Local’. This campaign is our tribute to all the people and the homegrown businesses in India who make our country what it is. I am glad that both Tata Motors and WATConsult took this opportunity to emphasise on this message, and thereby in our own small way, we want to encourage the nation to understand a few aspects of being ‘Atmanirbhar’. Through the ‘Atmanirbharta by Tata Motors’ campaign, we want to steer relevant conversation around the subject by sharing our perspective, while encouraging our customers and the country to work towards this overarching goal.”

Talking about the campaign, Ms. Heeru Dingra, CEO, WATConsult added, “We are happy to have extended our relations with Tata Motors to curate a concept on a topic that is so relevant in today’s time. The idea was to promote and appreciate the concept of ‘Atmanirbharta’, which is becoming a necessary trait and a motto for our nation. While the animation makes the video more endearing, the narrative seamlessly portrays the potential that India drives, in terms of talent, power and various other aspects, in today’s age. With this video we are confident that we will be able to help each one of us understand the importance of being self-dependent along with respecting all the workers from different strata of life who are in their own way making our nation self-reliant.”

This campaign’s concept takes an adaptive approach by using an animated video for the film as a substitution for a live action version, keeping into consideration the ongoing need for physical distancing. Initially launched in our national language - Hindi, this video will also be translated in English and multiple other regional languages to create a nationwide resonance. 

Click here to watch the full video - Atmanirbharta by Tata Motors

NSDC and Simplilearn Announce Collaboration to Upskill Professionals in Digital Skills Across India

 * The partnership will help deliver learning in digital skills and technologies 

* Access to over 1,000 hours of free eLearning, available exclusively on the Simplilearn Android and iOS mobile apps

The temporary shutdown of institutions and universities due to the COVID-19 lockdown has affected the overall learning of a large number of students and professionals alike. To support the continuity of digital skilling of the Indian workforce, Simplilearn, a global provider of digital skills training, today announced its partnership with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). Through this collaboration, Simplilearn will host more than 1,000 hours of free learning in digital skills and technologies for learners across India. Aspirants can find program details on NSDC’s eLearning portal - eSkill India - and access the learning programs on the Simplilearn Android mobile app (bit.ly/simplicertified) and iOS mobile app (apple.co/30pnzsm)

Aligned to the Skill India Mission, the collaboration aims to create a future-ready workforce by leveraging the power of technology.   Strengthening the digital learning ecosystem, both Simplilearn and NSDC will enable access to over 1,000 hours of digital programs and technologies under the categories of AI and Machine Learning, Big Data, Data Science & Business Intelligence, Cyber Security, Software Development, Project management, and Digital marketing. All programs are designed with a unique industry relevant curriculum, which provides learners theoretical understanding and enables them to get an indepth knowledge about the evolving industry trends. 

Commenting on the collaboration, Dr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC, said, “The dissemination of future-ready skills require technology platforms with high outreach capabilities. Through its partnerships, NSDC promotes online learning for accessing exciting work-opportunities that the fast-changing world offers.”

Speaking on the partnership, Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO Simplilearn, said, “In these uncertain times we have witnessed a surge in the usage of digital platforms and technologies, indicating the creation of new job roles in the days to come. It is of utmost importance that the current workforce is well-equipped with digital skills to meet the industry demands of tomorrow. As part of Simplilearn’s continued partnership with NSDC, we are happy to support and contribute to NSDC’s efforts in the skilling of India’s workforce to prepare for a digital future. Through Simplilearn’s mobile app, learners will have the opportunity to upskill in IT and new technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science, making for a job-ready workforce.”

To date, Simplilearn has helped more than one million professionals across 150 countries upskill and prepare for the digital future and now aims to help build a career for the future professionals in the field of Information Technology. 

NSDC’s eSkill India portal provides learners a platform to explore online skill-courses anytime, anywhere. The portal leverages technology to enable skill seekers to accelerate their learning through methods like virtual learning and remote classroom. eSkillIndia catalogues more than 450 e-learning courses in multiple Indian languages through leading knowledge providers.

IDEMIA Launches iCube, an Innovation and Incubation Program in India

IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, launches iCube, an innovation and incubation program to support and assist Indian startups that leverage Augmented identity. In a fast-changing digital environment, Identity has become an indispensable building block for making businesses and cities safer and smarter in a vast range of environments and usages including financial services, healthcare, education, food sustainability, smart cities, IoT, e-Governance, e-commerce, travel & mobility, telecom, defence and more.

IDEMIA addresses these new challenges and needs with the launch of iCube, a program designed to assist and speed up start-ups and innovators in their product development and commercial roll-out.

Pierre Barrial, President & Chief Executive Officer at IDEMIA, stated: “IDEMIA has always been at the cutting edge of innovations in making the world a smarter and safer place. We are delighted to enable start-ups and developers to leverage the innovations we originally developed for corporations and governments across the globe. I am thrilled that the IDEMIA Innovation and Incubation program - iCube - is launched in India, one of our most vibrant markets globally. Not only do I look forward to help start-ups to succeed in India, but I am equally excited about taking some of their solutions to our customers across the world. I look forward to this mutually rewarding and exciting journey of co-creation.”

Sanjeev Shriya, Managing Director IDEMIA India added, “Innovation is the core of IDEMIA’s identity. Over time, we have developed cutting edge solutions with a global impact in domains like Financial services, Citizen Identity, Telecom, IoT or M2M. Thus, we are delighted to announce the launch of iCube - the IDEMIA Innovation and Incubation program that will help build compelling solutions for a safer and better world. This program is designed to assist startups and innovators by providing them access to our expertise and technology. It aims to speed up their product development and help them get to market faster.”

To further support developers and innovators, IDEMIA has opened its application program interfaces (APIs) and launched a credit program. In addition, IDEMIA’s engineers and its industry experts will share their insights and knowledge during several sessions and talks.

http://idemia.co.in/iCube

iCube will also work closely with corporations in curating and co-creating solutions that may be mutually beneficial.

IDEMIA will engage with startups and innovators through the following programs:

Startup Assistance Program

An ongoing program providing eligible startups credits to use IDEMIA and partner organizations’ technologies and products, APIs, SDKs, and other support

Accelerator Program

A curated 3-month program to help developers and startups become better prepared for market

Developer Program

A selected opportunity for startups to co-create solutions with IDEMIA’s technology teams and business teams

Scale Fast-Track Program

A selected access for startups to IDEMIA’s global client base and opportunity to jointly go to market with IDEMIA

 iCube may also provide selected startups with office space in their world class incubation facility located in Noida, India. iCube has already partnered with Lumis Partners Supply Chain Labs and Freshworks to reach out to a wider range of startups and support them in their journey.

About IDEMIA

IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, provides a trusted environment enabling citizens and consumers alike to perform their daily critical activities (such as pay, connect and travel), in the physical as well as digital space.

Securing our identity has become mission critical in the world we live in today. By standing for Augmented Identity, an identity that ensures privacy and trust and guarantees secure, authenticated and verifiable transactions, we reinvent the way we think, produce, use and protect one of our greatest assets – our identity – whether for individuals or for objects, whenever and wherever security matters. We provide Augmented Identity for international clients from Financial, Telecom, Identity, Public Security and IoT sectors.

With close to 15,000 employees around the world, IDEMIA serves clients in 180 countries.

Mswipe launches “Bank Box” to Revolutionize Digital Payment Landscape for SMEs

 * New affordable offerings comprising of zero rental and zero MDR solutions

* Small businesses can collect and pay digitally even without a bank account

* Enters issuance business with Mswipe Moneyback Card to help merchants earn as they spend

* One-time digital KYC for hassle free and instant signup

Mswipe announced today the launch of Bank Box, a digital acceptance and payment solution designed to meet the cost-centric needs of MSMEs and merchants, as well as provide for a seamlessly integrated experience. Through this launch, Mswipe aims to pave the way for a futuristic payment solution platform and address key challenges that merchants and MSMEs face, with recurring costs on POS terminals like PoS rentals and Merchant Discount Rate (MDR).

Mswipe, India’s largest merchant acquirer with a network of 6.75 lakh POS and 1.1 million QR merchants, set out with the vision to build a cutting edge product – one that combines their acquiring and issuing platforms into a one-stop-shop, “Bank Box”, which enables easy signup, instant activation of the terminal and lifetime zero rental and zero effective MDR for merchants.

Manish Patel, Founder and CEO, Mswipe said, “COVID-19 has significantly impacted the earnings of small businesses, which in turn has led to curbed expenditures from their end. As a market innovator, Mswipe is helping MSMEs and merchants control costs incurred while accepting digital payments and further incentivize them to make digital payments. Essentially, Mswipe’s Bank Box facilitates small, medium and micro businesses to break into the digital ecosystem at the lowest possible TCO and sign up - even if they do not have a bank account.”

With a one-time digital KYC, businesses can choose between Bank Box Go - a POS solution with zero rental and zero MDR or Bank Box Lite - a QR solution with 0 rental and 1% cashback on all transactions and instantly go live. In both offerings a merchant gets a UPI QR and a Moneyback Card. Bank Box Go additionally provides an affordable mPOS capable of accepting chip + pin and contactless card payments. For Bank Box Go merchants have to pay a one-time fee of Rs. 4,000 plus taxes while for Bank Box Lite, they pay only Rs.199 plus taxes.

Sameer Hoda, President, Strategy and Operations, Mswipe said, “With Bank Box we have democratized the digital acceptance and payments ecosystem for the smallest of businesses by giving them a choice. With Mswipe now both an acquirer and issuer, we have provided an end-to-end digital enablement of MSMEs and merchants and empowered them to join the Digital Bharat movement.”

While mPOS allows acceptance of multiple modes of payments including UPI, Visa, Mastercard and American Express, mQR accepts payments from more than 150 UPI and mobile banking apps like PayTM, Axis Bank and BHIM among others. To spend digitally, merchants can load their Mcard with up to Rs. 1,00,000 per month.

Mswipe is targeting merchants with an average daily digital collection of Rs. 2,000 - Rs.2,500 in tier 3-4 markets and Rs. 8,000 - Rs. 10,000 in Metro and semi-urban areas.

About Mswipe:

Mswipe aims to be India’s largest financial services platform for SMEs and merchants by providing seamless mobile POS and value-added Services. It is the largest independent mobile POS merchant acquirer and network provider with 6.75 lakh POS and 1 million QR merchants across the country. Mswipe offers a host of POS solutions for all types of payment acceptance - cards, wallets, mobile payment apps and bank apps, contactless and QR payments. Headquartered in Mumbai, Mswipe began operations in 2011. Its key investors include B Capital, UC-RNT, Falcon Edge Capital, Matrix Partners India, DSG Partners and Epiq Capital. For more information, visit https://www.mswipe.com

Huawei Launches Digital Payment Cloud Solution at Better World Summit 2020

Huawei launched a new Digital Payment Cloud Solution recently at its Better World Summit 2020 designed to help digital payment service operators build super app centered payment ecosystems that will accelerate digital financial inclusion in emerging markets.

Ryan Wu, Director of Huawei Software Marketing & Solution Sales Dept.

“According to GSMA , mobile money today has over 1 billion registered users after more than 10 years of development,” said Ryan Wu, Director of Huawei Software Marketing & Solution Sales Dept. “However, merchant payment is still at its infancy. We all know that the key to success in the mobile payment business relies on the ecosystem. Super app is a critical platform and engagement point for ecosystem partners and provides an efficient merchant marketplace. Huawei’s digital payment cloud is designed to provide a payment platform and super app that helps mobile payment operators build an ecosystem quickly and efficiently.”

Huawei’s digital payment cloud solution brings value to payment operators from three aspects:

* Extremely Digital Experience: With the digital architecture, both user and transaction data can be opened in real time, ensuring real-time query experience for users and merchants. In addition, real-time risk control can be built based on AI analysis capabilities to identify fake transactions and avoid cash-out risks.

* Expedite Service TTM: With the open ecosystem, the solution provides API (application programming interface), H5, mini apps, and UI bricks technologies that  enable partners to launch the service on super app within one week and marketing campaigns from idea to launch within three weeks.

* Agile Iteration: With a cloud native platform, the solution supports container/micro-service, auto-scaling, grayscale release, and enables software updates in days.

In Myanmar, Huawei has cooperated with KBZ Bank to launch KBZPay and within 18 months successfully grew the service to six million registered users, over 1000 partners, and more than 290 thousand merchants. KBZPay’s transaction value has reached over $7 billion, cementing KBZ as Myanmar’s number 1 mobile payment service provider.

Tata Communications Launches ‘Secure Connected Digital Experience’ to Help Enterprises Rebuild

Tata Communications, a global digital ecosystem enabler, today announced the launch of ‘Secure Connected Digital Experience’ (SCDx), a new proposition for enterprises to help them rebuild and adapt their organisations for a post-COVID world.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses around the world to adapt suddenly to survive the huge disruption to everyday life. With many countries now emerging cautiously from lockdown, businesses are looking to redesign and restructure their operations for a transformed landscape.

Tata Communications’ SCDx proposition is intended to meet this growing, worldwide demand for new ways of operating, which includes far higher levels of working from home, rising security risks, a shift to digital commerce and more contactless experiences for employees, customers and supply chain partners. It will help companies currently relying on short-term fixes, such as consumer-grade applications or employees’ home broadband connections, by providing holistic, secure, enterprise-level digital solutions that address current challenges and are fit for the long term.

The SCDx proposition consists of three offerings:

* Tata Communications Secure Connected Digital Workplace enables enterprise employees (those typically working from the office as well as those working in the field), to work seamlessly and securely from anywhere through industrialised, scalable and high performance remote workplace solutions for complete workplace readiness.

* Tata Communications Digital Customer Experience Platform recreates the in-store experience online for B2C companies, with the next generation of enterprise commerce and video collaboration solutions for superior digital customer engagement.

* As supply chains become increasingly digital and transparent, SCDx will enable the supply chain ecosystem with secure access to enterprise core applications and significantly improved performance for third parties.

A.S Lakshminarayanan, MD and CEO, Tata Communications says, “COVID-19 is acting as a catalyst and accelerator of business transformation. In recent months, millions of employees have experienced working from home, consumers have embraced digital shopping and delivery, and businesses have adapted to doing more, virtually. These changes have created a new reality and we are not going back to how things were done before.

As enterprises shift from focusing on business continuity to business recovery and growth, they urgently need to rethink their digital strategies and transform themselves to prosper in this digital-first ecosystem. With Secure Connected Digital Experience, our goal is to enable enterprises to adopt new digital working models, accelerate their time to market and drive agility and resilience, giving them the tools to innovate, invent, and redefine their employee, customer and supply chain experience.”

Within the Tata Communications Secure Connected Digital Workplace offering, Tata Communications will provide a range of services to enterprises looking to enhance and safeguard the employee experience. It will provide secure and high-performance, zero-trust network access (ZTNA) through a partnership with NetFoundry, a subsidiary of Tata Communications. The zero-trust solution provides employees secure access to applications and data in the cloud, regardless of location, device or broadband connectivity, with 3-10X performance acceleration. This is vital for companies who want to digitally transform and embrace higher levels of remote working but need confidence that employees can access documents and apps securely and with an enterprise-grade experience, even on their home broadband connection.

Tata Communications Secure Connected Digital Workplace solution will also offer enterprise-grade collaboration and security solutions, ensuring that dispersed teams can collaborate without compromise, with seamless features like video, voice, messaging, etc. as well as secure access to applications behind enterprise firewalls to boost innovation, productivity and efficiency.

Through its connected employee solution, it will provide IOT-based employee health and safety wearables and SafePassTM smart ID cards, which enable effective social distancing, employee tracing and other safety norms, while enhancing worker wellbeing and minimising workplace risks in an industrial or campus setup.

NetFoundry was a key enabler in the digital transformation of FWD Insurance, one of the leading and fastest growing insurers in the Asia Pacific, providing FWD with a cloud-native, zero trust, software-only platform for FWD's cloud access use cases. When COVID-19 hit, FWD used the same platform to extend the secure access service edge (SASE) architecture for simple, zero trust remote access, while providing a high-quality end user experience for internal users and supply chain partners.

Shilpa Tumma, Business Information Security Officer, FWD said, “NetFoundry’s cloud-native connectivity has been the perfect match to aid FWD on our digital transformation and cloud-native application journey. In the current pandemic situation, although our usage has multiplied, NetFoundry easily scaled to cater to our demands to facilitate work from home in a few simple clicks, for both internal users and external parties. The solution helps us create AppWANs with zero trust micro-segmentation. NetFoundry multiplies the throughput by 3 to 4 times, giving the best user experience even for very huge file transfers.”  

Tata Communications’ Secure Connected Digital Experience builds on the company’s focus towards platforms and solutions for customers. The proposition leverages Tata Communications’ managed service capabilities and infrastructure and aims to drive intelligence across next generation connectivity; collaboration; cloud, edge and security; NetFoundry; voice, and more.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Tata Communications has been supporting customers to deploy relevant solutions in record time; in many cases, delivering changes and upgrades in less than six hours. Tata Communications has enabled tens of thousands of employees globally for remote working across more than 150 organisations including Tata Consultancy Services, with many more under deployment.

ABB India Opens a New Robotics Facility to Support the Digital Transformation of Manufacturing in India

The new ABB Robotics solutions delivery facility will enable Indian customers to reap the benefits of Industry 4.0 including cutting-edge robotics and digitalization technologies, going at the heart of helping India become a resilient high-tech manufacturing economy in the world.

Spread over 3,600 sq.m at the ABB Nelamangala factory premises in Bengaluru, the new facility will enable ABB India to deliver robotic applications and digital solutions for a variety of Indian industries, including automotive, food & beverage, electronics and other upcoming sectors. The facility houses a state-of-the-art shop floor that can run proof of concepts and factory acceptance tests for 1000 ABB robots every year, which doubles the company’s capacity. This enables rapid innovation, adaption, optimisation and agile delivery of made-to-order robotics applications for Indian customers.

“The new facility harnesses the powers of ABB’s deep global expertise and knowledge of the Indian industrial landscape to support our customer base,” said Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director of ABB India. “Even with increased demand for automation, the penetration of robotics, especially in small and medium enterprises is still low in India compared to the global average. With the help of the new and improved robotics facility, we will be able to share our knowledge and encourage Indian manufacturers to embrace our game changing technologies and become best-in-class manufacturers for local and global markets.”

The facility includes a demonstration center where the latest technologies in robotic welding, gluing and material handling will be showcased and can be used to carry out joint prove-out sessions with customers. ABB will also integrate an ABB AbilityTM Connected Services team that can remotely monitor an installed base of ABB robots to conduct predictive maintenance and high uptime.

A new Customer Experience Center is being set up for customers to learn about the latest in robotics technology and applications, including ABB’s dedicated robot simulation and programming software, RobotStudio. Additionally, the facility will host a paint lab where customers can run simulations of a broad range of industrial painting applications.

ABB is one the leading suppliers of robot, robot systems and machine & factory automation solutions, having shipped over 400,000 robot solutions across the globe. Designed as a complete digital ecosystem, ABB’s factory of the future concept will cater to the growing demand of collaborative automation solutions, by enabling innovation of new robot applications tailor-made to the Indian market.

About ABB Group

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB’s success is driven by about 110,000 talented employees in over 100 countries.

India Angel Fund Invests in Mental Wellness Startup - IPHM Services

IPHM Services has succeeded in raising a seed round of funding from India Angel Fund, most of them Women Entrepreneurs, also first time angel investors.

New age healing assistance, IPHM Services (Integrated Personalized Health Care Management), helps design programs and workshops for the psychological well-being of individuals and employees of large organizations. 

Founded by Dr. Sachin Bhavsar, IPHM believes that the Heart, Body, Mind and Soul are four pillars of life and an integrated system that needs constant nurturing. Their services aim to assist individuals to reach their own potential by developing skill sets within them, pertinent for their good health, emotional and mental well-being. 

An influx of funds would mean training more individuals, employees and aspiring entrepreneurs to reach their potential growth and increase general productivity within an individual. Afterall, all these aspects are interlinked and a positive push in any direction would enhance our own offering. 

Speaking on this fundraise, Dr. Sachin Bhavsar, Founder - IPHM Services said, "While we have always believed in nurturing the four attributes for a healthy living, there is also very little awareness of the real-time applications and the rapidly evolving technological advances in the healthcare system. This infusion would mean creating cognizance at the grass-root level and would definitely ameliorate the overall health economy."

Being a subject matter expert and an integral part of IPHM Services, Sneh Kulkarni, Co-founder – IPHM Services remarks, "There was always a need-gap between awareness about mental health and real-time use of technology in the healthcare system. We are now one world that has been connected digitally and therefore, it becomes easier to really understand societal structures and socio-economic backgrounds. This enables us to understand the different cultures that people come from, and offer a personalized approach to helping these individuals."    

First time angel investor and an alumni from IIM Ahmedabad, Monaliesa Sarkar said, “I have been working actively with various NGOs and government bodies in Delhi NCR and I cannot stress enough on the need for more startups to emerge in the mental health space. I also love the fact that an inspiring person like Dr. Sachin is matched by a powerhouse of energy which is Sneh Kulkarni. I am also kicked that this deal is led by women angels like me, Jyoti, Koel and Sabana and we have a woman entrepreneur like Sneh. I have always advocated that Women Angels should actively lead from the front and back other Women Entrepreneurs.” 

Women are now stepping up as angel investors and putting their energy, time & money in industries that are not only growing but are also adding value to the well-being of the nation. Speaking on this, women entrepreneur Jyoti Tiwari said, “I have been a healthcare professional for more than 15 years and absolutely agree that mental health is the key to overall health and wellness and our immunity can only be built by working on the MIND and not just the body. I am also making my first angel investment and just love the fact that it's a woman co-founder like Sneh Kulkarni on the other side apart from the inspiring Dr. Sachin.”

The third women angel investor on this project is a powerhouse with 17+ years of experience in corporate retail and also runs a successful startup. Koel Dutta said, “Having been a professional for 17 + years and having successfully exited from my last startup TieKart, I am now making my first Angel investment thanks to my old friend Rahul Narvekar and I am sure we 4 women angel investors can work with mentoring Sneh on how to build this company, since I have also run a successful startup.”    

The 4th women Angel Investor Sabana Khatoon also an IIM A Alumni, wearing multiple hats as a business woman, active in various initiatives in Kolkatta from helping run TEDxChowringhee to various entrepreneur networks said, "Being a single woman entrepreneur and having myself seen so many cases in the past few months of mental health issues, I am quite excited to make my first Angel Investment and that to with Sneh Kulkarni and Dr. Sachin.”. 

“Being a Doctor I always tell everyone that mental health manifests into physical health and especially in such challenging times, it is more so. I am awed by the personal journey of Dr. Sachin, multiple surgeries, amputation and still he is so positive and an absolute role model for everyone. I also love the positive energy that all the women here bring as a team. This is also my first Angel investment and I like the fact that it's in a space I am personally involved in too”, said Dr Vikaas Grover, a doctor by profession and a startup enthusiast.

India Angel Network has made another seed investment of Rs. 25 lakhs into IPHM Services. Speaking on this deal Rahul Narvekar, Co-founder IAF said “Mental Health is a subject which has been amplified in mainstream conversations recently and especially in these times of uncertainty and fear and overall negative atmosphere, it has brought home the fact that we need to openly talk about this but also address and heal. I was introduced to Sneh and Dr. Sachin by Rajiv Dabhadkar and was completely awed by their dedication and deep domain expertise in this space. Dr. Sachin’s personal journey is a story of grit and determination and that is the key ingredient for any entrepreneur. Interesting to note that this has turned into a women dominated deal. We have an awesome majority of women entrepreneurs and I believe that women make the best entrepreneurs, CEOs and Angel Investors. Women do multitasking routinely, are more open about sharing and are natural care givers and that’s what mental health platforms need. Also all the four Angel Investors are first time Angels and I would LOVE to see more women become Angel Investors.”

About Integrated Personalized Healthcare Management Services

The USP of the IPHM service is “Nurturing health in heart, body, mind, and soul. IPHM believes that this is an integrated system that works on these four pillars. If one fails then life becomes unbalanced. IPHM offers services such as Stress management, Women wellness, Child and Adolescent Psychology.

Integrated HR is the Programme designed by Integrated Personalised Healthcare Management for the Corporates. IPHM evolves into the mainstream functions of organisations, the remote work revolution predicts further possibilities and is here to stay. Every organization needs to make new strategic choices and also equally need to take care of employee’s mental health.

ServiceNow Named a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software Asset Management Tools

ServiceNow, the company that makes work, work better for people, has been named a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software Asset Management Tools. ServiceNow was recognized for its Software Asset Management (SAM) solution. This recognition comes just two and a half years after ServiceNow first launched its SAM product.

ServiceNow’s SAM solution provides customers with the ability to help reduce software spend and license compliance risk, allowing companies to gain a more complete picture of their software assets deployed in their datacenter, on end user computers and in the cloud. With ServiceNow, customers can optimize IT productivity, cost, and resilience. This is crucial for companies, especially during times of economic uncertainty, where companies are looking to drive even greater efficiencies with their capital.

At ServiceNow’s recent Knowledge 2020 Digital Experience, customers such as Accenture, Exelon, and Microsoft presented on their successful journeys with ServiceNow SAM to achieve high value.  Many customers are finding opportunities to save millions of dollars very quickly by eliminating unused software.

“Now more than ever, companies around the world are looking to drive efficiencies and reduce costs,” said Manish Srivastava, VP and GM of IT Asset Management at ServiceNow. “We feel Gartner’s recognition of ServiceNow as a Leader for Software Asset Management tools is a reflection of our solution’s unique ability to not only provide insights, but automate taking action on these insights using the ServiceNow workflow platform, accelerating savings realization, and compliance remediation.”

ServiceNow’s SAM product runs on a single architecture, natively interacting with other critical functions such as Hardware Asset Management, IT Service Management (ITSM), IT Operations Management (ITOM), and IT Business Management (ITBM). The single data model provides workflows to connect the enterprise throughout the full IT life cycle.  ServiceNow’s single system approach modernizes and simplifies how SAM gets done.

Gartner Disclaimer

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

radeIndia Launches Updated Version of App in 6 Vernacular Languages to Align with PM's Vision of Go vocal with Local

To ensure the comprehensive business solutions to the country’s business community, TradeIndia, India’s largest online B2B marketplace has launched an updated version of its mobile app. The new app has implemented AI to give category and product recommendations as per the users’ search and browsing history.

With the Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring the war cry ‘Vocal for Local’ in a bid to revive the economy, TradeIndiais strengthening the agenda by providing a reliable platform to local buyers and sellers for identifying trustworthy business partners. The new app in 6 vernacular languages; Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Telugu, Marathi and Oriya will be an ideal forum for businesses from across India, as they can vocalise and interact with each other to operate smoothly, securely and effectively. The app also comes equipped with additional features including the chat option that allows the buyer to connect with the seller directly with each listing.

Speaking on the app launch, Spokesperson of TradeIndia said, “SMEs have remained a critical part of India’s growth engine and their role will be extremely crucial in the post-COVID-world. The new version of our app in multiple vernacular languages will allow more such small players from across the countryto ramp up their productivity levels, add agility and even enter new markets.By tapping the maximum potential of digital solutions, they will be able to take their businesses to new heights with increasing revenues and profits.”

A one-stop platform for global buyers and suppliers, TradeIndia currently has over 5.5 Million registered usersand over 6 lakhs app downloads.Riding high on its 20 years of experience in B2B industry, the marketplace provides 360° digital solutions for all end-to-end business-related needs of its customers. The main products and services offered by the portal include online Catalog, Domain, Email, SSL, Buy Leads, Payment Solution, Google Ad words, Social Media Ads, Credit Reports and Business Loan Solution for SMEs. The newly launched Beta app will further enableSME owners and individuals from vernacular regions to successfully grow their businesses online.

Here are the Ten US Business Predictions for 2009!

Two words apply well for the year just ended: Whoa, Nelly! With the financial markets in chaos, the jobs landscape littered with layoffs, and the most audacious outpouring of federal funds since the Great Depression, most of us are ready to look forward to cheerier times in 2009.

Here at BusinessWeek, we've again donned our prognostication helmets and took a gander into the old crystal ball for a few (educated?) guesses at what this new year holds in store. True, we failed to predict the two major events of 2008—the election of Barack Obama and the financial meltdown rippling across the world economy. But we did nail one call: 2008 was the year of $100-per-barrel oil—we just didn't anticipate its stunning slide back to $40.

Recession Reigns

Expect more budget cuts, layoffs, shutdowns, bankruptcies, and mergers. Look for beleaguered bookseller Borders Group (BGP) to slip into Chapter 11, and for Barnes & Noble (BKS) to take over some of those stores—but only a few. Also expect Chrysler to merge into General Motors (GM) at a bargain-basement price as Chrysler's private equity owners at Cerberus Capital race to get that investment off their books. With the rapid collapse of oil prices, and the resulting financial pressures, expect two or more mergers among Big Oil. Our best guess?

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) buys troubled BP (BP), in part to avoid regulatory issues that could come from merging with a U.S. oil company. There will also be tremendous pressure on wireless phone prices, causing financial headaches for companies like AT&T (T). Newspaper companies' profits will continue to shrink; watch for a billionaire such as financier George Soros or New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to lead a rescue of The New York Times (NYT), which will become part of a not-for-profit corporation by the end of the year.

Bernanke: Four and No More

President-elect Obama has nowhere to go but down in his approval ratings, so he may lose some popularity points as me makes tough choices in his early months. Also expect to see the last vestiges of the Bush Administration head for the exits. Declaring that his work is done, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will announce he'll leave the Fed upon the expiration of his four-year term as chairman on Jan. 31, 2010.

While mostly not his fault, the recession has hurt his standing with the Obama Administration—and it also has worn him down on a personal level. He'll be succeeded by Lawrence Summers, former Treasury Secretary under the Clinton Administration.

There will also be realignment on the global level. Look for Canada to forge stronger labor and trade ties with Europe in an effort to further unhinge itself from the flailing U.S. economy. Canada also will snub its southern neighbor to strike more energy and resource deals with other countries—especially China, which will continue its ascendance on the world stage in spite of economic setbacks. Also, it's a good bet Vladimir Putin will reassume the Russian presidency.

Oil Rises Again

There's a fair chance for a resurgence in oil prices, even if they dip below $30 in the next few months. Crude is likely to average $60 or $70 per barrel in 2009. OPEC will get its act together and rein in supply, and demand won't shrink as much as speculators had feared.

Still, oil won't spike to the $100-plus range because consumers remain more energy-conscious. Oil companies will continue to invest in major projects as cash-strapped nations will open their doors to foreign investments just as they have done in the past when times are tough. And commodities are no longer the place for speculators to make a fast buck.

Workers Go Creative

Economists agree that further mass layoffs will continue in 2009, and the unemployment rate could reach the double digits. That means workers will turn creative about job opportunities. Look for freelancing and small business applications to explode as laid off workers attempt to strike out on their own. The downturn also is spurring more business and other graduate school applications, and young people will continue to take shelter at universities to ride out the storm.

Bling Takes a Break

Who can afford bling anymore? Who wants to? The ostentatious—eye-popping expense accounts, showy jewelry, McMansions—will be out and frugality will be back in fashion. Suddenly clipping coupons becomes trendy and, fortified by new Web services, hitchhiking stages a comeback. Boxed wine, already a budget sensation in Europe, will take off in the U.S. Look for eBay (EBAY) to enjoy a revival as Americans turn to the underground market to raise money and scour for bargains.

Business Embraces Big Government

Long considered a thorn in the side of commerce, the government will continue to be the apple of the business community's eye. Why? In tough times, Uncle Sam remains the economy's last resort. That doesn't mean there won't be plenty of fights over how to regulate industries and how to create not just Big Government, but also Smart Government.

But by the time all is said and done, the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) funding will go well beyond $700 billion. President Obama will request, and Congress will approve, another several hundred billion in aid. Much of that will go to homeowners, although airlines will probably get a slug of cash as will auto parts makers.

Digital TV Nightmare

Chaos ensues in February when U.S. broadcasters cease analog TV signals, throwing millions of Americans into a dark-screen panic. Despite nearly $1 billion in spending on educational campaigns alerting Americans to the change, surveys show that many of the 40 million or so likely to be affected still don't realize what the digital broadcast shift means to them. The government is offering a $40 subsidy to help pay for converter boxes—but plenty of Americans still using older analog TVs have no idea.

3D Returns in a Big Way

Recession notwithstanding, innovations in 3D technology will flourish. Computing technology firm NVIDIA (NVDA) is bringing realistic 3D effects on the desktop into the market this year, and more movie theatres will have IMAX screens. Consumers also will get a peek at James Cameron's much ballyhooed Avatar, a 3D movie and game the storied producer has been slaving over since 2004.

Consumers Fight Back

Tapped out consumers will look for advocates in Congress for protection against predatory or deceptive practices in areas from Credit-card fees to mortgages to exorbitant charges for text messaging by wireless companies. Legislation like the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, which passed in the House in September, will have a better shot at passing the Democrat-controlled Congress and being signed by President Obama.


Housing Hits Bottom, At Last

Super-low mortgage rates—engineered by the government to help zap the economy—finally motivate us to shop for houses again. Prices will remain weak, as people who had kept their houses off the market suddenly put them up for sale as soon as they see a little buying interest. Expect home prices to continue to fall through the end of 2009. While the decline will mean trouble for some, for others, it's a golden opportunity to buy. By early 2010 credit and confidence in the market will be restored, and smart investors will be pleased to see the housing market start to recover.

Source: Economic Times