MobiKwik, one of India’s largest digital financial services platforms, today announced the launch of its breakthrough product called ‘Boost’, that offers instant loan approval and disbursal to MobiKwik users. This is the first-of-its-kind of credit disbursal product, wherein loans of upto Rs. 60,000 are sanctioned as well as disbursed in a matter of 90 seconds. MobiKwik has partnered with a number of NBFCs to offer this service to its users. MobiKwik is the first wallet player to disburse loan amount in the user’s mobile wallet.
‘Boost’ offers loans without any hassles of submission of paperwork or collaterals. The loan sanction decision will be taken in 30 seconds, on the basis of an innovative risk scoring model called ‘Mobiscore’, developed by MobiKwik. The real time underwriting has been possible only because of artificial intelligence and data analytics capabilities used in the entire loan journey.
Users can apply for loans ranging from Rs. 5,000 upto Rs 60,000 through MobiKwik app. MobiKwik users who avail loans via the app will have the option to transfer their loan amount to their bank account. The amount credited can be utilized by the app users across a range of use cases including urgent purchases, marriage expenses, travel plans, hotel bookings, medical emergency, as well as payments to offline and online merchants.
The loan process includes 4 simple steps:
1. Select Boost on the MobiKwik App
2. Activate Boost for instant loan
3. Insert PAN and other Kyc details to view loan offer
4. Accept loan offer and get instant disbursal
Speaking on the announcement, Upasana Taku, Co-founder and Director, MobiKwik said “Our objective is to provide easy access to credit to each and every Indian, irrespective of his location. This is first of its kind of product that will totally revolutionize the way India avails credit. Our path-breaking product will enable Indians, located anywhere in India, to avail instant loans, whenever they require, within 90 seconds, via the MobiKwik app. In the initial months of piloting the offering, we have already crossed 100 thousand loan providers. We will be rolling out new products in the lending portfolio so as to cater to diverse credit requirements of customers. We are confident that lending will be a game changer and will establish us as clear leaders in the digital financial services domain in the country.”
The loan amount is payable in easy instalments of 6 and 9 months. They can either payback from the MobiKwik app or can enable MobiKwik’s partner to auto-debit the monthly EMI from their bank account. MobiKwik users are required to update their KYC with PAN card and other Kyc details to avail the loan benefit.
Nutanix, Inc., a leader in enterprise cloud computing, has completed the acquisition Frame, Inc. (“Frame”), a leader in cloud-based Windows desktop and application delivery. With Frame, Nutanix customers will be able to deliver desktops-as-a-service (DaaS) from multiple clouds, combining the consumer-grade simplicity and web-scale design of cloud applications with the functionality of traditional virtual desktop applications.
According to Gartner, “by 2019, 50% of new VDI users will be deployed on DaaS platforms.” The report goes on to state that, “interest in DaaS has resurfaced as a hot topic with midsize organizations that have progressed and matured their cloud strategies.” (Gartner, Inc., When Midsize Organizations Should Select Desktop as a Service, Nathan Hill, Refreshed: July 19, 2018 | Published: 31 January 2017) Taking advantage of Frame’s cloud-native architecture, Nutanix will extend the service to Xi Cloud and Google Cloud Platform, while continuing support for popular third-party clouds like AWS and Azure. This will provide customers with a genuine multi-cloud deployment model, consistent with Nutanix’s philosophy of customer choice.
Based on recent research from IDC, the DaaS software market is forecast to grow to $2.99 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate of 32.1% (IDC Worldwide Desktop-as-a-Service Software Forecast, 2017-2021, Robert Young, June 2017, IDC). The rapid adoption of cloud-native applications is fundamentally altering how applications and services are delivered to users. Modern ‘born in the cloud’ applications are inherently elastic, delivering on-demand scalability – and are built to support multiple organizations from a single cloud. Frame embodies these same principles for delivering DaaS. Its web-scale architecture incorporates auto-scale functionality providing impressive performance at any scale, while natively supporting multiple tenants with complete isolation of users, desktops and data.
Frame is built from the ground-up to support multi-cloud delivery models, allowing IT teams to deliver virtual desktops from public clouds and their own enterprise datacenter – with common tooling and management constructs. Leveraging a multi-cloud architecture for DaaS provides easier migration of applications across environments, more seamless disaster recovery and a single IT environment for delivering both traditional and cloud-native applications.
Cloud-based delivery has also elevated end user expectations. With Frame, users get a high-performance desktop experience in just minutes, without having to install proprietary client software. Applications can be instantly accessed from an online ‘app marketplace’ from anywhere to maximize customer delight and productivity.
With Frame, Nutanix will address customer requirements for DaaS in the mid-market, while continuing its long-standing support for large-scale VDI projects delivered via enterprise datacenters. This includes continued support for VMware Horizon View, as well as remaining Citrix Ready certified for Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp. Frame simply provides Nutanix customers another deployment option for delivering virtual desktops.
“Companies desperately need a cloud-native desktop solution for their multi-cloud environments which combines the performance of on-prem offerings with the flexibility and cost optimization of the cloud. That’s why we built Frame,” said Nikola Bozinovic, Founder and CEO at Frame. “Nutanix shares our vision of simplifying critical IT functions so companies can save money, save time and still achieve exceptional performance no matter their underlying infrastructure, and we’re so proud to have joined the family.”
Frame is the only global, infrastructure-independent platform built to deliver Windows applications from the cloud. Companies from across industries rely on Frame to run even the most graphically-intense 3D tools for visualization, science and engineering, and cutting-edge design. Through Frame Platform Government Edition and Frame on Microsoft Azure Government, government agencies can take advantage of a secure, next-generation end-user computing platform which is designed to meet government requirements, including FedRAMP and NIST 800-171.
“Frame’s cloud-native technology represents everything we believe to be true in the market – customers want easy-to-use, high performance and cost optimized solutions that just work across the entirety of their infrastructure,” said Sunil Potti, Chief Product and Development Officer at Nutanix. “We are committed to providing our customers with a robust multi-cloud DaaS offering through Frame while working with our partners to enable best-in-class enterprise VDI. We are delighted to add the Frame technology, and the innovative thinkers behind it, to our family.”
Availability
Frame will be available following the closing of the acquisition on third-party clouds from AWS and Azure. Availability on Nutanix Xi Cloud and Google Cloud Platform will be announced at a later date.
For the 8th edition of this technology competition initiated by Atos, university students from all around the world are invited to submit their innovative concepts around the theme of Machine Learning of Sustainability for the Atos IT Challenge 2019. The contest offers students the opportunity to turn their ideas into working concepts and a €10,000 prize will be awarded to the members of the winning team, allowing them to bring their app to life. Teams of 2 to 4 members can participate. Online registration is possible until November 30, 2018.
Machine Learning is a field of Artificial Intelligence that uses statistical techniques to give computers the ability to “learn”. It is a game-changing technology, already being applied in many areas including Video & Serious Gaming, Medical Diagnosis, Fraud Detection, Driverless Vehicles and Security Surveillance. We believe it is an important area for the Atos IT Challenge to explore. We are seeking how Machine Learning can be applied to the topic Sustainability, in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments and the orientation of technological development are all in harmony.
The best 15 concepts from all submissions will be announced mid-December. After which, the remaining teams will start the second stage of the competition - app development. The final winner will be announced in Paris in July 2019.
On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti and its 40th Anniversary Celebration, Evion (Merck’s flagship Vitamin E brand) announced its novel Tree Plantation Drive of 40000 Trees at Harda, Madhya Pradesh.
In partnership with Grow-Trees - a web-based service that enables individuals and companies to plant trees in public lands all across the world - Evion is reaching out to its physicians, partners and employees asking them to each pledge a tree. Together, they will collaborate towards ensuring that more than 40000 trees get planted to mark the brand’s 40th Anniversary in India.
Sharing his thoughts with the team at Harda - the site of the Tree Plantation drive - Milind Thatte (Managing Director, Merck India) said, “Over the last 40 years, Evion has grown to become the highest selling Vitamin E brand in India, thus creating a legacy of nourishment in the country. On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, Evion is proud to announce this humble initiative to give back to the community for 40 years of trust and support. This is our small effort towards improving the health of our environment.”
Evion today is the leading brand within the Merck Consumer Healthcare setup. It is India’s no. 1 Vitamin E brand, with a rich 40-year legacy amongst health practitioners and consumers.
“At Grow-Trees, it is our mission to plant millions of trees in public lands of India while providing sustainable source of income to the forest dependent local communities. We are delighted to collaborate with Merck and Evion on this mega tree plantation drive for their 40 years celebration. It’s indeed wonderful to see a brand celebrate an important business milestone with an initiative like Trees for Rivers to give back to the community”, said Bikrant Tiwary from Grow-Trees.
Nutanix, a leader in enterprise cloud computing, announced today that its AHV hypervisor and Enterprise Cloud OS platform hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution, has met SAP’s criteria for running production SAP HANA deployments. This will allow businesses that use SAP solutions to benefit from the simplicity and agility of leading HCI technology to deliver a modern IT architecture for SAP’s leading in-memory relational database platform.
SAP has certified the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS platform with AHV virtualization for SAP HANA as part of SAP’s new HCI certification program. SAP HANA is revolutionizing the speed of data processing for reporting, analytics and computational tasks. Nutanix has proven the performance and scalability required for successful SAP HANA enterprise deployments, along with simple Day-2 operations of SAP environments. This includes the ability to deliver superior throughput rates with minimal latency, as well as ensure high availability during periods of heavy database usage.
“We are delighted to announce this achievement. As customers increasingly re-platform their portfolio of enterprise workloads on Nutanix, our certification will enable them to use a single platform for all their workloads,” said Sunil Potti, Chief Product and Development Officer, Nutanix. “The certification for SAP HANA gives our customers a more modern infrastructure option. Enterprises will be able to leverage Nutanix and SAP to deliver value to their organizations by powering their database services, analytics processing, app development and more — with predictable performance and linear scalability.”
Businesses that use SAP solutions will be able to leverage the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS platform in production and non-production environments to rapidly provision, simplify management and easily scale their IT infrastructure for faster time to value for SAP HANA and other SAP applications.
Availability
Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS software is certified today for SAP NetWeaver based landscapes including SAP S/4HANA application servers and can be used for production to scale-up SAP HANA databases.
Coffee grown in Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and Bababudangiri will shortly get geographical indication (GI) tag, said Srivatsa Krishna, CEO and secretary, Coffee Board, on Monday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of ‘Naya Bharat: Coffee Par Soch,’ as part of International Coffee Day, he said that the Board had applied for GI tag for coffee grown in five southern regions, based on their uniqueness. Of these five places, three are from Karnataka. The list also comprises coffee grown in Araku valley (Andhra Pradesh) and Wayanad (Kerala). The GI tag is likely to come by January 2019.
This is the first time that GI tag has been applied for coffee-growing regions. In 2008, GI tag was obtained for Monsoon Malabar coffee blend. “The idea of doing this is to recognise the coffee, promote the brand and increase local sales. Over 70% of India’s coffee is grown in Karnataka, but the market needs to be strengthened,” he said.
To increase the production of coffee, regain the market position and encourage farmers, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act funds will be helpful, Krishna said.
“I request the Coffee Board to tie up with zilla panchayats to recoup and expanexpand the areas. Funds for coffee planters under MGNREGA will be given, on the lines of mulberry and sericulture,” he said. Krishna said the floods in Kodagu had an impact on coffee production, but things were improving.
On the occasion, the Board announced the launch of Atal Incubation Centre at Coffee Board in Bengaluru. This centre will help startups and coffee growers to become entrepreneurs. The centre is set up under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) to nurture innovative startup businesses.
So far, in India, 20 centres have been established, Coffee Board is the 21st and the first such in India, said R Ramanan, mission director, AIM. This centre is being set up in partnership with Nasscom and FKCCI. The Coffee Board also announced its partnership with Ernst and Young for ‘The Future of Coffee-Roadmap’, and with National Institute of Public Finance and Policy for a study on subsidies for Coffee Industry.
Nestlé India announces the launch of NESPLUS - a range of nutritious and delicious breakfast cereals for the entire family. A unique combination of wholegrain and multigrain, NESPLUS breakfast cereals aim to offer an array of healthy breakfast choices for Indian families.
The new range of NESPLUS breakfast cereals comes with four multigrain variants – Kokos, Choco- Burst Fillows, Strawberry-Burst Fillows and Nutty Honey Granola. Each of these is a combination of four grains - wheat, rice, oats and the traditional Indian millet, jowar. This combination of grains along with unique flavors has been specially created for the Indian palate. A key characteristic of the product is that it remains crunchy in warm milk.
Commenting on the launch, Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director, Nestlé India said, “Breakfast is considered to be the most important meal of the day and consuming the right breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day. NESPLUS is specifically designed for the Indian consumer and offers Vitamin D, Calcium, B-Vitamins, Iron, Folic Acid and Fibre, making it a great addition to the breakfast table.”
With this launch, Nestlé India aims to provide high quality nutritious breakfast options for the Indian consumers in line with its vision to introduce products ingrained in nutrition, wellness and health.
