Jaguar Land Rover India to Introduce Hybrid Vehicles By End of 2019

Jaguar Land Rover is proposing to launch its electrified products in India. In line with Jaguar Land Rover’s global commitment to introduce electrified options on its entire product portfolio by 2020, Jaguar Land Rover India proposes to offer multiple products, ranging from Hybrid Vehicles to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) over the next few years, starting from 2019.

Towards the end of 2019 Jaguar Land Rover will introduce its first Hybrid Vehicles from Land Rover. In second half of 2020, Jaguar Land Rover India plans to launch its first Battery Electric Vehicle, the Jaguar I-PACE.

Rohit Suri, President & Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd. (JLRIL) said:

“Jaguar Land Rover’s focus is to commit itself to a more sustainable future and our engineers have developed just the right products to lead us on this path. The introduction of electrified vehicles in Jaguar Land Rover India’s portfolio is in line with the government’s thrust towards electric vehicles. The company is encouraged by the introduction of FAME-II by the Government of India and its focus on expansion of the charging infrastructure in the country. This is bound to help with faster adoption of all kinds of Electric Vehicles in due course.”

Jaguar Product Portfolio in India

The Jaguar range in India includes XE (starting at ₹ 40.61 Lakh), XF (starting at ₹ 49.78 Lakh), F-PACE (starting at ₹ 64.64 Lakh), XJ (starting at ₹ 111.30 Lakh) and F-TYPE   (starting at ₹ 90.93 Lakh). All prices mentioned are ex-showroom prices in India.

Land Rover Product Portfolio in India

The Land Rover range in India includes the Discovery Sport (starting at  ₹ 44.68 Lakh) , Range Rover Evoque (starting at ₹ 52.06 Lakh), All-New Discovery (starting at ₹ 76.94 Lakh), the New Range Rover Velar (starting at ₹ 82.90 Lakh), Range Rover Sport (starting at ₹ 103.74 Lakh) and Range Rover (starting at ₹ 181.86 Lakh). All prices mentioned are ex-showroom prices in India.

Jaguar Land Rover Retailer Network in India

Jaguar Land Rover vehicles are available in India through 27 authorised outlets in Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Karnal, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida, Pune, Raipur, Vijayawada and Surat. 

IVM Podcasts Launches Alexa Skill for TV Personality Cyrus Broacha

IVM Podcasts, India’s premier podcast network announced that its popular show, Cyrus Says will now have its own official skill on Amazon Alexa. Listeners of Cyrus Says can now play the popular podcast on their Amazon Echo or any Alexa-enabled device with the convenience of voice.

Hosted by the inimitable Cyrus Broacha, the show covers various elements of life in urban India including politics, sports, civic sense, traffic, kids, food and a host of other themes. This cricket season tune in to LANSO (Left-Arm-Not-So-Orthodox) – a topical edition of his podcast that airs every Wednesday by just saying “Alexa, talk to me about cricket”.

The skill can also be accessed with the Alexa app available on iOS and Android. Once enabled use simple voice commands such as “Alexa, open Cyrus Says”, or“Alexa, ask Cyrus says to play the latest podcast” to start listening.

Speaking on the association, Amit Doshi, founder of IVM said, “Making the skill available on Amazon Alexa is very exciting since it’s a sign of larger audiences adopting podcast as a medium of consuming content. It’s a seamless way to listen your favorite podcast with an official skill and I’m certain that fans of Cyrus Says will be very pleased with this development.”

Cyrus Broacha, TV and theatre personality, comedian and host of the show said, "Wow Cyrus Says is on Amazon Alexa?   Keep in mind Cyrus himself is not available. Just Cyrus Says. Ask Alexa to play me, I mean Cyrus Says."

“It is exciting to see huge interest in podcasts and that Alexa Skills are enabling this adoption. We are delighted to see IVM onboard a popular name like Cyrus Broacha with a Alexa Skill focusing on cricket and other important topics”, says Dilip R.S., Country Manager for Alexa Skills, Amazon India.

While podcasts are a fairly popular medium of content consumption in the west, the Indian market is still playing catch-up. Over the last 4 years, IVM has been creating audio content and building a consumer base for the medium by creating engaging content and has collaborated with over 50 podcasters to garner 10 million listens so far.

Fly Emirates to Dubai and Avail a Discounted Uber Ride Upon Arrival

Due to excellent customer feedback, Emirates has expanded its partnership with Uber to offer passengers travelling into Dubai from more than 50 destinations a discounted airport ride.

Emirates passengers travelling to and through Dubai can enjoy a stress free end-to-end journey by booking today and availing a free or discounted and reliable Uber ride from and to Dubai International Airport. Visitors travelling from more than 50 global destinations within North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, India, Australia and Far East can take advantage of this offer starting now until 18 June 2019. *

Emirates Economy Flex Plus and Emirates Economy Flex passengers travelling from Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram can redeem the exclusive offer by visiting the Emirates website during the promotional period. *

Economy Flex Plus travellers can avail two free rides from and to Dubai International Airport from anywhere in Dubai up to the value of INR 2200 per trip, while Economy Flex passengers will get 50% off two rides, from and to Dubai International Airport to anywhere in Dubai up to the value of INR 1100 per trip.

Visitors to Dubai will be awed by the city’s attractive offerings including the eclectic landmarks, fine dining restaurants, world-class shopping malls and stunning beaches. The vibrant city has a bustling calendar of events across the summer months including impressive art fairs, music concerts, comedy shows and thrilling horse racing events such as the Dubai World Cup 2019.

Emirates passengers travelling in Economy Class will enjoy the airline’s award winning in-flight entertainment system with 4,000 channels of movies, music and TV programmes. Passengers on-board will receive unmatched hospitality provided by the airline’s iconic Cabin Crew from 135 nationalities, speaking more than 60 languages. Customers can also stay connected to family and friends during the flight with up to 20 MB of complementary Wi-Fi.

*The offer is valid for both existing and new Uber users

* Terms and conditions apply

About Emirates:

Emirates’ 33 years in India have been defined by progressive investment, partnership and growth. In October 1985, Emirates launched flights from its Dubai hub to Delhi and Mumbai which formed the base of its initial route network. Since then, Emirates has grown its India operations to serve a total of 9 destinations across India - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram – with over 170 weekly flights. The Emirates Group currently employs 13,707 Indian nationals globally – constituting 21% of its workforce, most of them in high-skilled employment. Globally the airline flies to 158 destinations in 86 countries and territories.

SAHAS Softech Partners with Farsoon Technologies and Uniontech for Plastic Laser Sintering

SAHAS Softech is very pleased to announce their partnership with FARSOON Technologies for Plastic Laser Sintering (PLS) and with Uniontech for Stereolithography (SLA). SAHAS will be Exclusive partner to both the companies to manage the Application Business Development and After Sales services for the Machines, Materials and Solutions. Sahas along with Farsoon and Uniontech will bring together each expertise of AM industry to a bright future ahead. With technologies of Open Parameter, Open Material capabilities, Farsoon and Uniontech are open for business in India.

Sohrab Kothari, Co-founder, SAHAS Softech said "The future of SLS and SLA 3D Printing technology looks very promising and is the next step to on demand manufacturing. Also Team Farsoon and Team Uniontech delivers the best technology and after-sales service around the world. With the collaboration of Farsoon and Uniontech, SAHAS plans to cater with the best possible solutions for multiple applications in varied sectors”.

Sahas Softech has extensive experience in AM design, application and service. The cooperation between Farsoon and SAHAS will join hands to bring the open, high-quality and cost-efficient AM solutions to the Indian market. Farsoon believe that’s companies open platform is the most suitable choice for Indian customers.

Vince Zhao, Head of Sales (APAC) of Farsoon Technologies, said: "The application of Additive Manufacturing has been developed for over decades in India market. Just like the rapid economic growth in India, the demand of innovative technologies such as Additive Manufacturing is growing very fast. As one of the most important market for Farsoon's globalization strategy, I believe India has great potential and will become one of the most active market of AM."

Additive Manufacturing is the defined term related to the production of parts using methods of delivering materials on a layer by layer basis until the completion of a computer-aided designed (CAD) software programmed part becomes a solid modelled part to be used in end-use applications in many industrial applications such as Aerospace, Medical devices, Automotive, and many Consumer products.

Rinna Gu, Overseas Head – (Uniontech) Said “We were searching for an experienced partner in the Indian AM Industry. Looking at SAHAS’s varied application solutions, they suited best as our partners to represent Uniontech in India.  India is Developing the fastest in technology since last multiple years. We want to cater with the best technology, Varied material applications and the best cost efficiency to grow the AM Industry faster.”

Additive manufacturing has been flourishing over the last twenty years and is becoming a part of the normal ecosystem for product development and production in the global marketplace.

About Sahas Softech
Sahas Softech, based in India, provides complete comprehensive services for Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Manufacturing with a team of 35+ and a portfolio of 500+ customers from varied applications. We have been in the Industry since last 7 years working on multiple projects with sectors like Engineering, Architecture, Healthcare and Mass customization. We are using multiple technologies like 3D printing, Laser Cutting and CNC to execute our projects. We are looking at 3D printing as revolutionary technology for batch production applications. 

Sterlite Power Completes India’s First Live Line Reconductoring Project in Electric City, Bangalore with Zero Shutdown

Sterlite Power, a global power transmission company successfully completed India’s first live-line project in Bengaluru. The company successfully undertook the reconductoring of a 66 KV transmission line connecting to Bengaluru’s electronic city under live-line conditions. The project uprated the existing line to double its power transfer capacity. High-performance conductor installed in the lines will provide better clearance from the ground and nearby buildings. Most Indian cities are witnessing rapid urban evolution which has spurred an exponential power demand. Added to this, aging infrastructure, lack of space to set up green field transmission projects are some the challenges in providing 24X7 power for all. Similar challenges were witnessed in Bengaluru as well. Hence, the state requires upgrade/uprate of its transmission assets to help in increasing the power transfer capacity in a short period of time, that too without shut down.

Commenting on the completion of the project Manish Agarwal, CEO, Solutions Business, Sterlite Power, said, “I am happy to announce yet another milestone achieved by Sterlite Power as we completed first live-line project in Bengaluru. Sterlite Power is driven by its core purpose of empowering humanity by addressing the toughest challenges of energy delivery. The solutions business has been pioneering innovative technologies which can be implemented during the execution of all our projects to ensure timely completion. We thank the officials of Karnatka Power Transmission Corporation Limited for their support in timely completion of this critical project.”

The Naganathapura receiving substation to Junction of Jail Road, which connects to Electronic city sector II, Phase-II (Malgudi) in Bangalore, passes through an extremely congested residential area and commercial buildings on both sides. Hence, it is significant that this reconductoring was undertaken in Zero shutdown conditions, causing no disruption to power supply to the area and community.

About Sterlite Power

Sterlite Power is a leading global developer of power transmission infrastructure with projects of over 12,816 circuit kms and 22,044 MVA in India and Brazil. With an industry-leading portfolio of power conductors, EHV cables and OPGW, Sterlite Power also offers solutions for upgrading, uprating and strengthening existing networks. The Company has set new benchmarks in the industry by use of cutting-edge technologies and innovative financing. Sterlite Power is also the sponsor of IndiGrid, India’s first power sector Infrastructure Investment Trust (“InvIT”), listed on the BSE and NSE.

McAfee Announces Global Pay Parity Achievement, Closing Gender Gap Companywide

McAfee, the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company, has announced that it has achieved global gender pay parity and is the first cybersecurity company to do so.

“At McAfee, we value the innovation, creativity, and strategic problem-solving that flourish in an inclusive and diverse environment,” said Christopher Young, CEO, McAfee. “We believe in the simple fact that every employee, regardless of their gender identity, should be compensated fairly and equally for their individual contribution to the company. I’m proud to lead a company that puts actions behind its beliefs and makes gender pay parity a reality for all employees.”

Through an extensive audit covering 45 countries and more than 7,000 employees, McAfee identified gender pay gaps in nine countries. Closing the gap required an investment of $4 million. Salary adjustments were made on April 1, 2019, and the company will continue to monitor and address pay parity annually.

“By achieving gender pay parity at McAfee, we continue to live our values, build an inclusive culture, create better workplaces, and develop stronger communities. I’m honored to join companies beyond the world of cyber already striving towards pay parity, and I hope more will join us in reaching this milestone in equality.” said Chatelle Lynch, Chief Human Resources Officer, McAfee.

McAfee defines gender pay parity as fair and equal pay for employees in the same job, level and location, controlling for pay differentiators such as performance, tenure and experience, regardless of gender.

Reinforcing the company’s commitment to building an inclusive workplace, McAfee has also released its first Inclusion and Diversity Report, highlighting its strategy and results to support and increase its diverse workforce.

Larsen & Toubro Expects $1 Billion Revenue from L&T Nxt in 5-7 Years

Infrastructure giant Larsen & Toubro is eyeing more than $1 billion revenue from its newly launched new-age technology platform L&T Nxt in the next five to seven years, a top company official has said.

The L&T Nxt initiative, which was launched last week, will focus on the areas of artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, geospatial solutions as well as cybersecurity.

The announcement came at a time when L&T has made an offer to buy up to 66 per cent stake in IT firm Mindtree for around Rs 10,800 crore. It has entered into a deal to buy Cafe Coffee Day owner V G Siddhartha's 20.32 per cent share in Mindtree and has also placed an order with brokers to pick up another 15 per cent of the company shares from the open market.

"This is more like a start-up ... this is more of an initiative going into outside market. Many of our initiatives have resulted in success stories. We will be looking at beyond a billion dollars in five years to seven years span," Larsen & Toubro's Senior Executive Vice-President (Defence Business) and member of the board J D Patil told the media.

Patil said L&T Nxt is being taken to the market after pursuing the initiative in-house for quite some time with an idea to help its clientele and customers, and the hope of some of the kind of unthinkable success stories.

"As of today, we can look at a couple of 100 million dollars to start with and then one would want to keep on honing it when one moves upward," the official said.

"We are committing significant investments and talent into this strategic effort and are confident that this will be an enabler for business," S N Subrahmanyan, CEO and MD, L&T, had said at the launch of L&T Nxt.

The firm will focus on the core areas of business through 64 of the company's domain verticals across industry, Patil noted.

"Now, obviously we have built good amount of skills which today has been limited to the point of customers visiting to us for designs to their need... we now will be relating to customers ... obviously from design to building -- one can create huge amount of value addition through digital," the official said.

Utilising the skills from the IT space and initiatives has resulted in better productivity and performance from the assets, he added.

"So, exactly this is the idea whether it is a plant, it is a factory or it is a kind of a control centre...equipment... one can build up to make it internet ready," he said, adding that with data, analysis and artificial intelligence software, the firm will create value for the company as well as its customers.

Asked about the geographies it will focus on, Patil said the company will choose initially the countries and areas where it is already doing business like the US, Europe and the South-East region.

"Obviously, we will choose initially to some extent the adjoining countries where we today are doing businesses, where we have our own existing offices and our networks which obviously turns out to be the US, Europe and South East region but I won't say it will be restricted to any given region as a multinational," the official added.

On how much investments the company has put in the venture, Patil said it was hard to quantify as till now it has been more of in-house project with investments done in places, people, infrastructure, building blocks over a couple of years.

He also said the era of cyber-physical systems is just beginning.

"With the lines between the physical and digital blurring, Industry 4.0 is being founded," he said, adding that "we see new technology businesses and sunrise enterprises as prime constituents with the latent upside for rapid and substantial value creation".

The company on March 29, while announcing L&T Nxt, had said it has been identified as a select initiative in L&T's five-year strategic plan.

The initiative is ideally placed to capitalise on the huge emerging opportunities with its large palette spanning software to hardcore engineering, backed by a strong technology base, it said.

The company has deployed IoT, analytics and AI in the industrial sector by converting most operational matters online like finance, human resources, labour, plant, and material into smart, affordable and efficient solutions.

Larsen & Toubro is an Indian multi-national firm engaged in technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services with over $18 billion in revenue. It operates in over 30 countries worldwide.