Embassy Office Parks REIT, India’s First REIT to Open IPO From March 18-20, 2019

The initial public offering (IPO) of Embassy Office Parks REIT (“Embassy REIT”), the first ever by a Real Estate Investment Trust in India, will open on March 18, 2019 at a price band of Rs 299 to Rs 300. Embassy REIT is issuing Units aggregating up to Rs. 47,500 million (the “Issue”). This Issue will constitute at least 10% of the issued and paid-up Units on a post-Issue basis in accordance with Regulation 14(2A) of the REIT Regulations. The issue will close on March 20, 2019.

The Units of the Embassy REIT are proposed to be listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (the “NSE”) and BSE Limited (the “BSE”, together with the NSE, the “Stock Exchanges”). The Embassy REIT has received in-principle approvals from the NSE and the BSE for listing of the Units pursuant to letters dated October 11, 2018 and October 9, 2018, respectively. NSE is the Designated Stock Exchange for this Issue. This Issue will constitute at least 10% of the issued and paid-up Units on a post-Issue basis in accordance with Regulation 14(2A) of the REIT Regulations. The Manager, in consultation with the Lead Managers, may retain oversubscription in the Issue in accordance with the REIT Regulations and the SEBI Guidelines.

The Net Proceeds from the Issue will be used for (i) Partial or full repayment or pre-payment of bank/ financial institution debt of certain Asset Special Purpose Vehicles (“SPVS”) and by the Investment Entity, (ii) Payment of consideration for acquisition of the Embassy One Assets currently held by Embassy One Developers Private Limited (“EODPL"), and (iii) General purposes.

The Issue will include participation by Strategic Investors in accordance with the SEBI Guidelines.

The Issue is being made through the Book Building Process and in compliance with the REIT Regulations and the SEBI Guidelines, wherein not more than 75% of the Issue (excluding the Strategic Investor Portion) shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to Institutional Investors, provided that the Manager may, in consultation with the Lead Managers, allocate up to 60% of the Institutional Investor Portion to Anchor Investors on a discretionary basis in accordance with the REIT Regulations and the SEBI Guidelines.

Further, not less than 25% of the Issue (excluding the Strategic Investor Portion) shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to Non-Institutional Investors, in accordance with the REIT Regulations and the SEBI Guidelines, subject to valid Bids being received at or above the Issue Price

Bids can be made for a minimum lot of 800 Units and in multiples of 400 Units thereafter by Bidders other than the units subscribed for by Anchor Investors and Strategic Investors.

Axis Trustee Services Limited is the Trustee to the Issue while Embassy Office Parks Management Services Private Limited is the Manager to the Issue. Embassy Property Developments Private Limited and BRE/ Mauritius Investments are the Sponsors to the issue.

The Global Coordinators and Book Running Lead Managers (GCBRLMs) to the offer are Morgan Stanley India Company Private Limited, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited and DSP Merrill Lynch Limited. Book Running Lead Managers (“BRLMs”) to the Offer are Axis Capital Limited, Credit Suisse Securities (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Equities India Private Limited, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Private Limited, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Limited, IIFL Holdings Limited, JM Financial Limited and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited.

Idea Offers One Year of Amazon Prime with Nirvana Postpaid Plans

Idea Nirvana postpaid plan customers now enjoy a one-year Amazon Prime membership with access to unparalleled shopping and entertainment benefits

Vodafone and Amazon already have an existing relationship that allows Vodafone Red customers free access to Amazon Prime membership as part of pack benefits

Amazon Prime offers unlimited FREE, fast shipping on millions of items from India’s largest online store, early access to top deals on Amazon.in, ad-free music listening through Amazon Prime Music and access to unlimited streaming of the latest and exclusive movies, TV shows, stand-up comedy and groundbreaking Amazon Prime Original series through Prime Video

Activate through the Idea Movies & TV app to enjoy the best of Prime – at no additional cost

Amazon and Vodafone Idea announced today that all Idea Nirvana postpaid customers are eligible to receive a year of Amazon Prime (worth INR 999) at no additional cost – providing customers the best in entertainment and shopping: Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Reading and unlimited free, fast shipping on millions of items along with early and exclusive access to deals on Amazon.in.

With this offering, Idea customers with a Nirvana postpaid plan of INR 399 and above can enjoy unlimited streaming anytime, anywhere. They’ll have access to premium movies and TV shows on Prime Video including the latest and exclusive blockbuster Hollywood, Bollywood and Indian Regional movies, top TV shows, stand-up comedies, kids programs and critically acclaimed Prime Original series like International Emmy Award nominated Inside Edge, Breathe, The Remix, Comicstaan, Hear Me. Love Me., Mirzapur, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, multiple award winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Homecoming and Four More Shots Please! And with Amazon Prime Music, Idea customers also have access to ad-free music streaming and unlimited offline downloads across tens of millions of songs in over 20 languages to enjoy at no additional cost to Prime membership. Idea customers can enjoy their favorite music hands-free using voice, just by asking Alexa for music based on genre, artist, album, mood, activity or create a playlist/add a song to an existing playlist. In addition, customers can get access to free eBooks and unlimited free 1 and 2 day delivery, exclusive launces, early access to sale events and many more discounts on Amazon.

Vodafone Red and Amazon Prime already has an existing relationship under which Vodafone postpaid customers will continue to enjoy access to Amazon Prime membership (worth Rs. 999) as part of their plan benefits.

Commenting on this collaboration, Avneesh Khosla, Operations Director Marketing, Vodafone Idea Ltd said “Today’s customers are digitally savvy and want more freedom and flexibility in the way they consume content. We understand the need to offer a great content experience to our consumers. Through this strategic relationship with Amazon Prime, we are further strengthening our content proposition and our commitment to offer the best to our customers. It provides them access to an extensive library of diverse and high-quality original content - thousands of movies, videos, TV shows and ad-free music on the go. We are confident that this association will provide both Vodafone and Idea customers a seamless on-the-go shopping and entertainment experience to our customers.”

Gaurav Gandhi, Director and Head, Business, Amazon Prime Video India said, “Prime Video continues to entertain and delight customers across the length and breadth of the country.  We are delighted to partner with Idea and believe that this association will further expand the reach of Prime Video to an even larger base of customers who can enjoy our Prime Originals, Blockbuster Films and other Premium content on a screen of their choice - be it their mobile device, their personal computer or the television in their living room”

Akshay Sahi, Director and Head of Amazon Prime India said, “We are pleased to collaborate with Idea and make Amazon Prime available to even more customers. Idea Nirvana postpaid customers can now experience Amazon Prime as a part of their plan, which provides customers an unparalleled combination of shopping and entertainment benefits. We believe these subscribers will love the many benefits of Prime; from listening to ad-free music across multiple languages on Prime Music, to watching the latest Bollywood, Regional and International video titles on Prime Video, from shopping exclusive deals on items they love most on Amazon.IN, to enjoying free fast delivery on millions of products, and a lot more”

The annual Amazon Prime membership can be activated through the Idea Movies & TV app.  Access to Prime Video is available after downloading the Prime Video app on supported devices. By downloading the Amazon Music App, one can enjoy hundreds of hand-curated Playlists and Stations specially curated by Amazon Prime Music’s editors across moods, activities, genres, artists and decades. They can also avail shopping benefits by logging in with their Prime account details on Amazon.in.

Similarly, one can enjoy hundreds of hand-curated Playlists and Stations specially curated by Amazon Prime Music’s editors across moods, activities, genres, artists and decades, by downloading the Amazon Music app and avail shopping benefits by logging in with their Prime account credentials on Amazon.in.

Idea Nirvana postpaid customers can activate their Amazon Prime membership in three easy steps:
·       Upgrade to an Idea Nirvana postpaid plan of Rs399 or above
·       Download the Idea Movies & TV app from the iOS App Store or Google Play Store. Generate OTP & validate by entering mobile number
·       Click on the special Idea – Amazon offer banner and activate without any extra cost.

Complaint Resolution Just Got a Lot Easier Across Indian Market

Resolver India, a free online platform for resolving consumer issues announced the launch of Resolver.in. The website enables consumers to connect with companies in a structured manner and helps businesses to understand customer grievances better - thus empowering both to amicably sort out unresolved matters.

The organization has a proven track record and is the preferred resolution tool of millions of consumers in the UK with over 3 million case files closed and a customer satisfaction rate of over 98% in the UK. Resolver India (previously known as Expertily) which is an Indian startup has received funding from Resolver Group UK. Resolver India has also received a seed round of investment from Manish Gupta, Chairman of JIMS and UINCEPT Incubator. Even before Resolver UK invested in Resolver India, the UK website was flooded with over 15,000 queries from India per month. The UK website was visited by over 2.5 lakh people from India in 2018. When someone registers an issue on Resolver.in, they are explained their consumer rights, assisted in preparing, recording their email/ chat communication and create a case file of their complaint, and the next steps in the process of issuing their resolutions. India being the 3rd largest consumer market in the world, Consumer Complaint Resolution market is therefore many times bigger than the UK.

“I am delighted to see Resolver launch in India today. The business promises to help both consumers and businesses all across India resolve all manner of complaints more effectively. I hope to see it soon become a household name in India” said Sir Dominic Asquith, British High Commissioner.

At the launch, Pratyush Singh, CEO at Resolver India said, “Resolver is a free and independent complaints platform allowing consumers to raise issues with organizations efficiently and effectively. Our mission is to break down the walls between consumers and businesses – building trust and understanding through fast, jargon-free issue resolution. Resolver.in is powered by Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) which guides consumers and supports organizations by making recommendations on what their next steps should be and when to take them.”

“We love India - and we can't wait to share what we've learned by helping people across the country get the results they need. We are extremely proud to partner with Pratyush and his team to bring this new tool to India and can’t wait to replicate our UK success by starting to help Indian customers and businesses. With India leading to grow into one of the top 3 consumer markets in the World from $1.5 trillion at present to nearly $6 trillion by 2030 (According to the Jan 2019 Bains- WEF report), we see India as a tremendous opportunity,” said James Walker, CEO & Founder, Resolver Group UK.

Resolver.in is a guided, supported web platform for consumers to create, store and track business complaints with an aim to deliver better outcomes for Indian consumers and businesses. Resolver India expects to initially receive the majority of complaints related to travel, banking, insurance, telecom, and real estate.

“Resolver India explains consumer rights to you, helps you prepare your emails, creates a case file for you, lets you record all your communications, lets you know when to escalate your complaint. This is all automated with zero manual interference, which is the most important thing to deal with a market as big as consumer complaint resolution, in India.”, added Pratyush, CEO Resolver India.

The explosion of India's internet user base, which is expected to reach 627 million in 2019, (according to IMRB), Resolver India sees immense growth potential in the future. In India, Resolver.in aims to deliver better outcomes for Indian consumers and businesses and end the days of hunting around a website to find the “Customer Service” link or waiting endlessly on hold for a customer representative. The website’s streamlined process makes filing an effective complaint as easy as a few clicks.

K7 Computing Appoints K. Purushothaman as The New Chief Executive Officer

K7 Computing Private Limited, today announced the appointment of its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). K Purushothaman joined as the new CEO from the 1st of March 2019.

Purushothaman joins from NASSCOM, where he served as Senior Director for over a decade. In his previous roles; he has been the Head of Communications for Aircel and has also been associated with Hyundai Motor India Limited. He brings with him strong experience of over two decades in Sales & Marketing.

Commenting on the new appointment, J Kesavardhanan, Founder & CTO, K7 Computing said; “On behalf of the entire team; I welcome Mr. Purushothaman to K7 Computing and wish him great success in his new role.” He further added; “As the first indigenous cybersecurity solutions provider; K7 Computing has always been driven by a strong focus on technology. I am confident that with his experience, Puroshothaman will also induce Marketing and Sales focused work culture; which is equally important for the overall brand reputation and growth of an organization.”

Kesavardhanan, who is the Founder of K7 Computing and was also, shouldering the responsibilities of the CEO; will now be the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). As a passionate technologist, Kesavardhanan has always worked closely with the product development teams and with this new role he will get an opportunity to focus on technological advancements and research in a better manner. He has always aimed to establish K7 Computing at the pinnacle of cybersecurity research and development work.

Kesavardhanan has also been appointed as the first CEO of AVAR. AVAR is the Association of Anti-Virus Asia Researchers established in June 1998 with the objective of countering the spread of malware and mitigating its impact. Read more

Commenting on his appointment, K Purushothaman, Chief Executive Officer, K7 Computing said; “It is my privilege to be associated with the pioneer of cybersecurity solutions in India. K7 Computing has a robust product line and superior support services for the consumer segment. Building on this success, I aim to establish K7 Computing as the most preferred brand for the enterprise segment.” He further added; “With the recent repositioning and expansion into the enterprise segment with new offerings; K7 Computing is well positioned to enter into an era of growth and expansion.   I look forward to contribute to this growth and serve our customers with world class products, solutions, and services and ensure them superior levels of security.”

The Data Literacy Project Introduces 18 Free Courses Offered by Qlik

Today the Data Literacy Project, the community dedicated to making society fluent in data, has announced the expansion of its library of resources, with 18 free Data Literacy courses now available from Qlik to help people and organizations around the world understand, analyze and use data with confidence.

Launched in October 2018, the Data Literacy Project includes founding partners Qlik, Accenture, Cognizant, Experian, Pluralsight, Chartered Institute of Marketing and Data to the People, with an overall aim of strengthening the data literacy skills among the workforce in today’s increasingly digitalized economy.

The expansion of the education program, which sees Qlik doubling the number of its courses over the last year, comes as part of the Project’s pledge to create the world’s most extensive library of resource-based learning for data literacy.

“Data-informed decision making is the ability to transform data and information into actionable and verified knowledge to ultimately make decisions,” said Kevin Hanegan, Chief Learning Officer at Qlik. “As the Fourth Industrial Revolution takes hold, data will be its universal language. That’s why we have made a firm commitment to helping organizations globally upskill workers in data literacy, from tackling unconscious bias in how they interpret data, to tips on how to correctly interrogate data, to ensure more robust business outcomes.”

Upskilling the workforce in data literacy is fundamental to unlocking business growth. Qlik’s recent Global Data Literacy Index found that organizations with higher levels of data literacy are associated with 3-5% greater enterprise value - a potential increase for large enterprises of between $320 and $534 million, associated to areas including productivity and growth. Enabling individuals to be data literate - i.e. fully confident in their ability to read, work, analyze and argue with data - when they leave education will set them up for success in the future workplace and help fuel business growth as well.

Self-service Platform Supports Improving Data-Informed Decision Making

The free courses, which are powered by Qlik’s self-service online learning platform and available on the Data Literacy Project website, have been designed to empower everyone with the ability to understand and use data with confidence, as well as help to foster a culture of data literacy and data-informed decision making inside organizations.

In addition to self-paced online learning modules, the following are also available from the Data Literacy Project: a comprehensive data analytics certification, learning resources for professors and students, and a Data Literacy Project individual assessment to receive a training roadmap based on your data persona. Qlik also offers a one day, instructor-led class, which is available worldwide as part of its Data Literacy education program at Qlik.com/GetDataLiterate.

“We firmly believe that data literacy should not be a skill beholden to a few individuals. That’s why we are taking direct action to instill data literacy more widely across all businesses through the free data literacy courses we offer,” said Hanegan. “Only by making sure that students and organizations have the basic building blocks in place to grapple with and analyze data for future, will we stand them up for success in The Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

US FDA -Approved TMS Technology Comes to Aid of Depressed, OCD, Addicted Patients in India

From Agarbatti to Neurocare, the Mysuru-based NR Group have grown many folds over the years. To cure depression, OCD, addiction patients in India, MindfulTMNeurocare uses advanced Transcranial Modular Stimulation Technology that is US FDA-Approved. After opening its first clinic last year in New Delhi followed by Chicago, the new clinic will be open in the city from Friday. The team are eying to open 100 clinics over a span of 10 years.

An estimated 300 million people around the world suffer from depression, among them 56 million are Indians. “This latter figure constitutes nearly 4.50% of the population - considering this percentage is set to increase because of the demands on mental health placed by urbanisation,” said Dr Vijay Mehtry, a consultant psychiatrist based in Bengaluru.

Mental health professionals blame rapid urbanisation for isolation of individuals and the increase in suicidal tendencies. According to Dr Ajit Bhide, the former president of the Indian Psychiatric Society, industrialised Japan, which has some of the highest suicide rates in the world, can be compared against agrarian Bhutan, where people are not exposed to expectations and are therefore generally satisfied.

“The problem in India is that we have extraordinary proportions of anomie in the country,” Dr Bhide said. Psychologists describe “anomie” as a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals.

“People in urban areas have a high degree of comforts and are usually paid fat salaries, but with little time to spend that money,” Dr Bhide added. “Reversing the rising trend of urban mental deterioration means enforcing a value-based education, strengthening family values and other social relationships.”

Pavan Ranga recognising the human brain as an elaborate and three-dimensional electrical circuit where faulty sectors cause mental disorders, he adds that he sought a means to stimulate the neural network to fix disorders. “In a depressed patient, we can see neuron sets which show subdued activity. By using TMS technology, which uses large wand emitting magnetic waves, we can actually trigger or light up darkened neuron areas to effectively cure depression,” he said.

Ranga expressed confidence that patients with depression can be cured following 25 to 30 sessions over a one-month period. Each session would last for 19 minutes. About 25 to 30 session treatment would cost about Rs 1 to 1.5 lakh.

“In addition, TMS cannot directly address suicide yet – but it can help to address mild and medium forms of disorders,” Ranga concludes. 

Brigade Group Invests Rs 100 Crore to Enter into Co-Working Space - BuzzWorks in Bangalore

Real estate firm Brigade Group is entering the co-working business through the brand BuzzWorks, under which it plans to roll out 2,200 seats in the next two years. The Bangalore-based real estate player has proposed an initial investment of Rs 100 crore for the fiscal year 2019-20.

BuzzWorks will initially launch more than 200 seats at Whitefield and Malleswaram at the Brigade Metropolis and Brigade Gateway campuses totalling 15,000 square feet. Later, the firm plans to offer co-working spaces in locations such as Kochi, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Hyderabad as well.

"BuzzWorks will be a natural extension of our commercial office portfolio and a forward integration for our business," said Nirupa Shankar, Executive Director, Brigade Group.

The Bengaluru-based group started off as a commercial space developer in 1986 and later expanded to other real estate segments including residential and hospitality.

With co-working segment gaining traction, big companies now comprise about half the clients. This has prompted many real estate firms such as RMZ Corp and Embassy Group to enter the business with ambitious plans.

India has more than 200 players operating over 420 co-working spaces across the country, according to Anarock Property Consultants. The consultancy has forecast twofold to threefold growth in this segment in the next two years alone.

Besides, it has said that with office rents rising across India, co-working spaces are likely to grow at least 30% year-on-year in terms of space occupied, with Bengaluru, National Capital Region and Mumbai, followed by Hyderabad and Chennai, offering the best prospects for growth.

The company also has 18 mn sqft of residential development to its credit and plans to launch another 9 million sqft by the next financial year. It has 0.5 million sqft of retail space and around 781 hotel rooms under construction.

Brigade Group has intensified its focus on the commercial real estate market. Brigade Enterprises has 11 million sqft of office space under various stages of construction. It has a partnership with Singapore-based private equity firm GIC Singapore for commercial properties.