Hyundai Motor India Nationwide Freedom Drive from August 14–21

 Hyundai Motor India Ltd., country’s first smart mobility solutions provider and largest exporter since inception, today announced the commencement of Nationwide Freedom Drive across all Hyundai workshops, with an objective to make customers mindful of Periodic Maintenance Schedule. Customers can avail special offers on Labour, Car Sanitization & Under body coating for their Hyundai cars from August 14 – 21, 2020.

Commenting on the Freedom Drive, Mr. Tarun Garg, Director – Sales, Marketing & Service, said, “Hyundai’s philosophy is to be the Lifetime Partner of its customers and Freedom drive is a step towards providing a delightful customer experience. This unique service initiative is aimed at educating customers about periodic maintenance with an intention to provide seamless service experience, enhancing customer’s peace of mind.” 

Customers’ offers and benefits for Freedom Drive at select Dealers include:

• Free 50-point check & hi-touch points sanitization

• Complete interior sanitization packages starting from ₹ 599

• Up to 20% discount on labour charges

• 15% discount on Underbody Coating

With over 1300 service outlets, HMIL is committed to provide the most comprehensive and qualitative service. Hyundai service facilities can also be experienced via 360° Digital & Contact-less Service. From online service booking through Hyundai Care App, Vehicle status update via WhatsApp, Pick & Drop from home/office and online payment facility, a touch free service experience is ensured for the customers, wherever they are and whenever they want to. Hyundai has endeavoured to establish service benchmarks in the industry with its leading service initiatives and No.1 rank in JD Power Customer Service Index study for 3 years consecutively.

Acer India Appoints Sudhir Goel as the Chief Business Officer for India and Bangladesh

Acer India, the global PC brand, has appointed Sudhir Goel as their Chief Business Officer. Sudhir has been associated with Acer India since 1999 handling various leadership roles spanning product engineering, manufacturing, support, supply chain and recently as the head of commercial business group. In his new role as Chief Business Officer, Sudhir will be responsible for leading both the commercial and consumer business of the company in India and Bangladesh.

With over 35 years of experience, Sudhir brings in a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role in Acer India. He was instrumental in establishing Acer India’s manufacturing facility at Pondicherry. He later took on the portfolio of Chief Supply Chain officer, handling complete supply chain - operations, procurement, material planning and manufacturing functions. In addition, he assisted Sales and Marketing in strategic calls on all large deals. Before this role, he was responsible for Acer India’s commercial business group handling PnL, product strategy, alliance relationships and establishing leadership position in multiple categories. He was also in charge of the company’s product solution development in Asia Pacific countries.

Harish Kohli, President, and Managing Director, Acer India said, “Under the leadership of Sudhir Goel, Acer India has successfully excelled in an intensely competitive environment and gained substantial impetus in Indian commercial PC market. Sudhir brings in excellent prerequisites to navigate Acer India in a challenging business situation and we are confident that his strategic thinking, experience, and ability to drive people will navigate the organization to even greater success in the future.” 

Commenting on appointment as Chief Business Officer of Acer India Mr. Sudhir Goel said, “I am honored to be appointed Chief Business Officer and excited to lead Acer's Commercial and Consumer business with support from our executive leadership team, as our company shapes the future of our industry. And now with the new normal where we are seeing a paradigm shift in consumer behavior, it is times like these when being effective, innovative and intuitive really makes a difference and I am looking forward to successfully lead both the business groups."

Before joining Acer India, Sudhir started his career in 1985 with DCM Data Products as a Design Engineer and later joined Compaq as National Tech Support Manager for two years. He has done his engineering degree from BITS Pilani and did his MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. He is fond of reading both fiction and non-fiction and loves to watch movies in his spare time.

Edtech Startup BasicFirst Appoints AjayDev Singh as Marketing Head and Chief Digital Strategist

BasicFirst – a personalized e-learning platform – today announced the appointment of industry specialist AjayDev Singh as Marketing Head and Chief Digital Strategist

Mr Singh has held leadership roles at top multinationals such as Reliance ADA Group, Percept Ltd and SVG Media (now Dentsu Aegis Network). An alumnus of The Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi, and Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, he possesses decades of experience in Marketing.

On Mr Singh’s appointment, Randhir Kumar, Founder and Chief Mentor – BasicFirst said, “As an e-learning brand, we are committed to helping students achieve academic goals by leveraging the unique combination of content-based learning and doubt clearing. Ajay Dev's experience in the mainline and digital domains will be conducive to our growth, accelerating BasicFirst’s presence in the e-learning space.”

Elucidating his plans for BasicFirst, AjayDev Singh said, “I am excited about the opportunity for heading an emerging ed-tech startup’s marketing unit, especially in challenging conditions. While nurturing the brand, we will be pursuing a long-term strategy of consolidation and growth. We are looking at 50 million installs and 5 million paid subscribers once the product trials and adoptions through marketing efforts across traditional and digital media, including Omni-channel platforms, are complete.”

Mr Singh believes digital campaigns leverage data to the benefit of the business, ensuring top-of-the-mind recall whenever the target audience seeks blended learning. BasicFirst is offering a bouquet of services to help students by promoting holistic development in multi-faceted areas.

About BasicFirst Learning OPC Pvt Ltd

BasicFirst Learning OPC Pvt Ltd is an aptitude-based personalized e-learning initiative that uses Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science to create a platform for adaptive learning online. Founded in January 2017 by Randhir Kumar with a vision to make quality education available in the remotest locations of India, BasicFirst caters to various academic needs of class 6th to 12th students. BasicFirst employs experienced teachers and professionals from top colleges of India, available 24x7, to design teaching modules assisting students from these classes to ace school, Board and competitive exams, including CBSE, ICSE, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Bihar while offering multiple courses designed for competitive exams such as JEE Main, JEE Advance, NEET, AIIMS, NTSE and Olympiads.

BasicFirst clears students’ doubts within 32 minutes or less via chat in the app. It equips students with essential communication skills, aptitude, subject competency and foundational knowledge to excel in academic goals, crack competitive exams and pave their way for a better career. Gradually, BasicFirst plans to spread its affordable services across the farthest regions to make digital academic support universally accessible.

Will Satyam lay off 8,000 non-IT staff from June?

Satyam Computer is likely to sack most of its non-billable staff of up to 8,000 working in marketing, HR and administration wings,after Tech Mahindra takes charge of the company from June 1.

A Satyam official said there is no doubt that there will be large-scale sacking mostly of the support and non-billable staff (other than hardcore software engineers) once Tech Mahindra (the new owner of the company) directors come on board from June 1.

The surplus staff is about 10,000-12,000 and the 'least painful' ways of sacking is asking the bench, non-billable and support staff to go.

The company spokesperson, when contacted, said that at the moment these are mere speculations.

Sources also said the outsourcer may opt for "virtual pool" sacking method whereby the company would ask some of the staff to take 75 per cent of its salary and take one-year off and look for a job elsewhere with the fragile assurance that they would be recalled, if required.

Tech Mahindra CEO Vineet Nayyar, who will also come on board of Satyam from June after it acquired fraud hit company last month, had said last week that Satyam has about 10,000 surplus staff and "we are looking at the least painful ways to tackle the problem."

Satyam has already called back most of its onsite staff to avoid further costs and most of them may be asked to quit, said the official.

About 3,000 people are on the bench and there is a surplus manpower even in the R&D and engineering units, sources said.

Dwindling revenues are the primary reasons for Tech Mahindra to opt for such a cost-cutting measure, Tech Mahindra official said.

Kiran Karnik, chairman of Government-appointed board of Satyam, said revenues are falling and cost-cutting measures have to be taken up. But he had ruled out lay-offs.

Agencies

Is Nokia set to cut 1,700 jobs globally?

Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, plans to cut 1,700 jobs globally by scaling back sales, marketing and some technology functions to adapt to falling consumer demand.

The company, based in Espoo, Finland, will start consultations with unions regarding the cutbacks, which are part of previously announced plans to adjust to a shrinking market, Nokia said in a statement today. Of the cuts, about 700 will be in Finland, spokeswoman Eija-Riitta Huovinen said by telephone.

“Nokia continues to seek savings in operational expenses, looking at all areas and activities across the company,” Nokia said in the release.

In January, Nokia said that it would slash its dividend for the first time in seven years and forecast a 10 percent slide in industry sales as the global crisis saps consumer demand. Nokia sold 15 percent fewer phones in the fourth quarter than a year earlier and cut its industry sales forecast for a third time since November.

Agencies

No job cuts in India, says Microsoft

Starting with 1,400 job cuts, software giant Microsoft will slash 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months.The layoff, however, would not be impacting the Indian operations. "It's not going to impact us. No job cuts in India," a Microsoft India spokesperson said in New Delhi.

In light of further deterioration of global economic conditions, extra measures to manage costs are being taken, including the reduction of head-count-related expenses, vendors and contingent staff, facilities, capital expenditures and marketing, the company, which posted a 11 per cent decline in profit for the second quarter, added in the statement.

"Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, HR, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today," the company said in a statement.