MyGate Receives Accolades from the Karnataka State Police for the KSP Clear e-Pass System

Karnataka State Police today honoured MyGate, the country's leading player in the community management space, for their contribution towards the efforts of the state police department during the lockdown. MyGate had, on a pro-bono basis, provided their technical expertise to build and manage the KSP Clear Pass, which issued over 2 lakh e-passes to Bengaluru citizens during Phase 1 & 2 of the lockdown.

Shri. Praveen Sood, Director General of Police, Karnataka, along with Shri. Pratap Reddy, Additional Director General of Police, Karnataka,  acknowledged MyGate's efforts by handing over a certificate of appreciation to Mr. Vijay Arisetty, Co-founder & CEO, MyGate and Mr. Shreyans Daga, Co-founder & CTO, MyGate.

“Our gratitude to Team MyGate for providing citizens (through Karnataka State Police), a user-friendly epass system during COVID-19 lockdown. An exemplary Public Private Partnership,”  said  Shri. Praveen Sood, Director General of Police, Karnataka.

About MyGate- Founded in 2016, MyGate is the largest security and community management app in the country, simplifying urban living of over two million homes in 10,000+ housing societies. It was ranked #4 on YourStory’s list of India’s Most Disruptive Start-ups in December 2019 and one of India’s coolest start-ups by Business Today in 2019. MyGate was founded by Vijay Arisetty, an ex- IAF pilot (Shaurya Chakra awardee), Abhishek K, former VP at Goldman Sachs, and Shreyans Daga, former project head at Oracle and Digit.

From left to Right - Mr. Shreyans Daga, Co-founder & CTO, MyGate, Mr. Vijay Arisetty, Co-founder & CEO, MyGate, Shri. Praveen Sood, Director General of Police, Karnataka and Shri. Pratap Reddy, Additional Director General of Police, Karnataka.

Vedanta's SESA Football Academy Continues to Foster Skill Development in Sports Across the Country

SESA Football Academy (SFA), a flagship CSR program of Vedanta which aims to identify, nurture and groom young footballing talents in the country, felicitated young graduates during Convocation Ceremony 2020 through virtual platforms. 27 boys who completed their football training at SFA were felicitated and awarded with E-certificates in the distinguished presence of Mr. Annanya Agarwal (President- Sesa Football Academy), Mr. Sauvick Mazumdar (CEO- Vedanta Sesa Goa Iron Ore Business), Mr. Brahmanand Sankhwalkar (former Captain of Indian football team and  Arjuna Awardee), Mr. Denzil Franco (Former Indian team player, ISL player and an SFA alumnus) and Ms. Leena Verenkar (Head- Group CSR , Vedanta Limited).

The event witnessed an active impressive line-up of core team members of SESA Football Academy and young sports enthusiasts cheering for the graduating students and wishing them for their future endeavors.

Sesa Football Academy was established in the year 1999 with an aim to identify, nurture, create platforms and build talent for Indian football. Till date, around 200 footballers have graduated from the academy. Apart from this, football initiatives undertaken by SFA have also positively impacted over 500 young players belonging to Goa and other cities of the country through various grassroot training programs. The residential academies provide systematic and robust football training through its team of national and international football experts, along with formal education of the trainees during the training period.

While congratulating the graduating batch, Mr. Annanya Agarwal, President, Sesa Football Academy said, “I am extremely happy and equally proud to see that we could produce another talented pool of 27 footballers, who will be next generation football icons of the nation. In line with our vision to contribute towards development of Indian football through robust grassroots training programs, we at SFA are taking significant steps in providing world class training to budding footballers to nurture their talent and groom them as professional footballers. I wish all our graduating players great success and a bright future.”

The SFA alumni have very good track records, making their mark in premier national football platforms including Indian national team, ISL teams and other prestigious football clubs across the country.

Mr Sauvick Mazumdar, CEO of Vedanta Sesa Goa Iron Ore Business said, “At Vedanta, community engagement is at the core of our business philosophy. Sesa Football Academy, developed on reclaimed Sanquelim mine with an aim to provide a training platform for Goan youths, has immensely contributed to Goan football & nation at large. Despite difficult business situations for past several years, Vedanta has continued with our flagship CSR initiatives, especially SFA, to ensure uninterrupted contribution towards development of Indian football. I congratulate all our graduating students and wish them a very bright & successful footballing career.”

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Brahmanand Sankhwalkar, former Captain of Indian football team and Arjuna Awardee said, “SFA has been doing praiseworthy work for the football community in Goa and country at large. The academy is producing good football talent by grooming them through grassroot training programs. I am happy to see these young players get such amazing training opportunity at SFA which is helping them pursue their career in football”.

Former Indian Football team player and SESA Football Academy alumnus, Mr. Denzil Franco congratulated all players and said, “I take pride in being a part of SFA. Contribution of SFA towards honing skills of young and talented footballers of Goa is immensely commendable. I am confident that the students graduating today from SFA will achieve greater heights and bring laurels for the academy boosting its legacy further."

SESA Football Academy also aims to raise the standard of women’s football in the country through Vedanta Women's League, which is helping in development of women footballers by providing them a platform to showcase and hone their talent. Vedanta’s contribution in development of sports is recognised by FICCI, and was conferred “Best Organisation Contributing in Sports through CSR” at the FICCI India Sports Awards 2019.

Blue Dart Ranked Amongst the ‘Top 50 of India’s Best Companies to Work For – 2020’

Blue Dart, India’s leading logistics services provider, as part of Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL), has been ranked amongst the Top 50 of India’s Best Companies to Work For – 2020 by the Great Place to Work® (GPTW) Institute and The Economic Times. In addition, Blue Dart has been awarded with the elite ‘Laureate Medal’ for being in the top 100 best organizations to have been featured in ‘India’s Best Companies to Work For’ list for 10 years. 

Commenting on being ranked amongst India’s Best Companies to Work For – 2020, Balfour Manuel, Managing Director, Blue Dart Express Limited said, “We are extremely honoured that Blue Dart has been recognised amongst the Top 50 of India’s Best Companies to Work For – 2020. We are even happier that our company has received the elite ‘Laureate Medal’ for featuring in the Top 100 Organizations recognised by Great Place to Work® for 10 years in a row. Blue Dart has always been an organisation that prioritizes its people. Our Blue Darters, the heart of our business, are the ones who make us market leaders with strong brand equity and market leadership. It is with their consistent prowess that we can call ourselves a Provider of Choice and an Investment of Choice to our customers. It is what makes us ensure that we remain an Employer of Choice for them. Through our ‘People First Philosophy’, we continue to invest in our people and create an enabling environment for their all-round development, which in turn drives and exceeds our customer and stakeholder expectations at all times. I am humbled to be part of this team.”

Rajendra Ghag, CHRO, Blue Dart Express Limited added, “We understand that the foundation of our business are our Blue Darters. ‘Highly engaged Blue Darters encourage Happy Customers’; this has been our motto from the very beginning. At Blue Dart, we understand that a good foundation for an organisation stems from strong brand values. We therefore instil, in our teams, our four values of Passion, Can Do, Right First Time and As One. We ensure our teams are taken care of through various HR initiatives, a few of which include, the Death Benevolent Fund (DBF) which aims to help resolve the financial crisis of the family rising due to the death of a team member as well as Upstairs, a program that aims to help children of team members by offering a scholarship program that provides them with Rs.1,00,000 per year along with a mentor.”

Since its inception in 1983, Blue Dart has been an organisation with a great workplace culture and strong talent retention. Most of the senior management team consists of home grown talent who have risen through the ranks. The organisation encourages growth and provides ample opportunity to skilled individuals ensuring they have a multitude of day one Blue Darters, including the current Managing Director, Balfour Manuel.

Recognized for their Best Practices such as the ‘Blue Way’ delivery program, an innovative initiative that allows every Blue Darter to participate in last mile delivery to ensure customer delight, Blue Dart paves the way as an organization that will always keep its people first and ensures dignity of labour. The Blue Way program sees the Senior Management Team, including the Managing Director, part-take in the delivery process. Blue Dart is South Asia’s undisputed express logistics leader that drives a culture of innovation, agility, excellence with a high focus on customer centricity.

Every year the Great Place to Work® study, which assesses the experience of over 12 million employees in more than 10,000 organisations across industries, recognises ‘India’s Best Companies to Work For’ based on their employee survey and people practices assessment. Bifurcating this further, Great Place to Work® (GPTW) Institute further recognizes 100 Best Organisations with an employee strength of over 500 which represent over 21 industry sectors.

GPTW primarily uses 3 dimensions to evaluate and identify the best cultures:

The first dimension measures the quality of employee experience through their globally validated survey instrument known as Trust IndexTM. The survey helps in seeking anonymous feedback from employees.

The second dimension is called the Culture AuditTM, a proprietary tool of the Institute that evaluates the people practices of an organisation, covering the entire employee life-cycle.

The third dimension is called Great Place To Work FOR ALLTM and ensures that everyone irrespective of their job role, tenure, age or gender at the Best Workplaces is having a consistently positive experience.

Coders Turn COVID-19 Fighters at TechGig Code Gladiators 2020 Coding Contest

Hackathons

* TechGig Code Gladiators has 15,617+ registrations at two hackathons focussed on limiting COVID-19 pandemic impact

* Guinness book record holder event, Code Gladiators is hosting its seventh edition this year with more than 2lakh+ registrations 

* Code Gladiators 2020 is hosting five hackathons in total, all focussed on new-age technologies like Machine Learning, RPA, Cloud 

Will a computer programme ease the COVID-19 crisis? Going by the heaps of ideas suggested at TechGig Code Gladiators 2020, the answer could very well be - a ‘yes’. 

With the world gripped in the COVID-19 crisis for more than 100 days now, it’s the right time for the coders to join hands with the frontline health staff and pharma researchers to keep the indomitable Coronavirus at bay. 

TechGig Code Gladiators 2020 has recorded more than 15,617+ registrations in two hackathons focussed on finding tech-based solutions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. They are IBM- 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge and Microsoft HackOnAzure. Microsoft HackOnAzure is solely focussed on finding COVID-19 solutions, while IBM- 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge has two tracks – COVID-19 & Climate Change. The other hackathons at Code Gladiators 2020 include UiPath RPA Hackathon, Automated Multi-Label Classification by Times Internet and the Open Coding Round where the participants can submit codes in any of the 50 programming languages offered.

Participation is free at https://www.techgig.com/codegladiators 

Code Gladiators - the Guinness world record holder programming event - is hosting its seventh edition this year. Code Gladiators 2020 edition kicked off on March 23, 2020, and has recorded 2,35,375+ registrations till now. This edition is particularly interesting because the COVID-19 lockdown has forced most professionals to work from home, giving them more time to participate in this globally acclaimed hackathon.  

TechGig surveyed to understand the participants’ experience at the present hackathon, where more than 68% coders affirmed that they could concentrate well on the hackathons owing to the lockdown. About 62% of participants also said that they were excited about the event’s upcoming online mega grand finale since this is the first time that the event will conclude with a virtual finale. 

 

Elaborating on the Code Gladiators 2020 hackathons, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “Every year TechGig Code Gladiators resolves to find solutions to the real-world business problems posed by the participating IT companies. This year, we found an opportunity amid the despair. Presently when most countries are battling the COVID-19 outbreak, Code Gladiators presents a unique opportunity to coders to find a tech-based solution to limit the virus impact. The other hackathons at the contest are equally interesting where coders are challenged to solve complex business problems using a trending technology such as RPA (Robotic Process Automation).”

Citing some of the solutions as ‘very promising’, Sanjay Goyal added that TechGig’s team and the entire IT industry is keenly waiting for some of these solutions to take shape. The first round of registrations at Code Gladiators 2020 is presently on and will conclude on June 22, 2020.

100 Pipers ‘The Legacy Project’ Wins Bronze Pencil at The One Show Awards

As a stamp of recognition, 100 Pipers ‘The Legacy Project’ has been awarded the coveted Bronze Pencil and a Merit at The One Show Awards in New York, the world’s most prestigious award show in advertising, design & digital marketing. The One Show awards are regarded as the top-level global recognition in the creative industry.

Seagram’s 100 Pipers has consistently lived its brand philosophy of ‘Be Remembered For Good’ with various endeavours that lead a positive change. In 2019, the brand embarked on yet another journey of goodness with The Legacy Project; to keep the legacy of endangered Indian art forms alive and help these communities thrive.

2019 saw the first chapter of 100 Pipers Legacy Project where the brand curated designs from six Indian art forms across India - Gond, Bhil, Pattua, Pachedi, Cheriyal and Kalighat. It engaged with local artists from these art communities to present a reflection of their version of ‘goodness’. To take these 6 unique designs to a larger audience, they embellished the new Seagram’s 100 Pipers Limited Edition Pack for 2019 with them.

To further give these artforms a well-deserved platform for exposure, this was amplified via large-scale digital & on-ground campaigns.

Speaking about the award, Kartik Mohindra, Chief Marketing Officer, Pernod Ricard India said, “Seagram’s 100 Pipers has always stayed true to its promise of “Be Remembered For Good”. The Legacy Project was an initiative that displays the brand ethos of leading a positive change in the society by supporting revival of India’s endangered art forms. Winning the Pencil at One Show Awards only strengthens our resolve of boldly marching forward on this chosen path. It’s heartening to make a difference and be globally recognised for it – it only serves to take the dying arts to a larger audience”.

Sharing his enthusiasm about the legendary win, Nitin Srivastava, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy, Gurgaon said, “The Legacy Project brings to the forefront folk artists of India. It's wonderful to see their work being recognised on a global platform as it gives such artists the hope and inspiration to continue on their path of creating beautiful artworks. Ogilvy and PRI have had a long association of over a decade during which we've built the brand together. This project is an example of how we've created something for a greater good and ensures the legacy of India's art forms continue to thrive.”

The brand 100 Pipers is positioned on the platform of ‘TRUE LEGENDS’, personified by successful people who rise above materialistic markers of success and work towards leading a positive change for the society. And hence, the brand’s expression of ‘Be Remembered For Good’. Over the years, 100 Pipers has consistently translated this positioning into actual consumer experiences through interventions like The Legacy Project and the ‘Play For A Cause’ music events. With Play For A Cause, the brand brings together celebrated musicians & organizes performances to generate awareness & contribution for various causes that impact our society like Clean Drinking Water, Meals for the underprivileged, Kerala floods, to name a few.

Seagram's 100 Pipers is the largest Scotch Whisky brand in India; market leader in Standard Scotch segment with twice the size of nearest competition. It is the first & only scotch brand in India to achieve the milestone of selling 1 million+ cases in a year in 2018.

Infosys to award 5 top Indian scientists

Infosys Technologies on Tuesday said it has instituted a Rs 50 lakh award each for five top Indian scientists in recognition of their outstanding research contributions and achievements.

The five awards will be given annually under the aegis of Infosys Science Foundation, a non-profit trust set up with a corpus of Rs 21.5 crore, the software major said in a statement here.

"The company will also annually grant Rs 2 crore to the trust to supplement the prize for each of five scientists of Indian origin working in the country or abroad. The award carries the largest prize money (Rs 5 million) to be given to any Indian scientist," the Infosys board member, T.V. Mohandas Pai, told reporters.

The five top scientists will be selected by a jury of five consisting of eminent international personalities and academic experts in each area.

The five Infosys awards will be given under the category of Physical Sciences in physics and chemistry, mathematical sciences in mathematics and statistics; engineering sciences in all branches of engineering; life sciences in biology and medicine; and social sciences and economics in economics, history, sociology and political science.

"India needs bright minds across all areas of academics, government, business and society to strive for global excellence. We need to encourage research in India to address our developmental problems. This award will honour outstanding researchers who will make a difference to India's future," the Infosys chairman and chief mentor, N.R. Narayana Murthy, said.