Yamaha Unveils Online Sales Through New Website with Virtual Store

 Highlights 

* The new website of Yamaha with Virtual Store will host an end-to-end online buying platform of Yamaha two wheelers

* The online sale will cover more than 300 dealerships pan India in 2020

* A class-leading customer experience at https://www.yamaha-motor-india.com/ and a hassle-free booking & purchase at https://shop.yamaha-motor-india.com/

The excitement of Yamaha is all set to get intensified as the company introduces the “New user friendly website with online sales facility” in India today, as a part of the brand’s continued effort to provide exciting experiences to its customers under its strategic campaign “The Call of the Blue”. 

In the current scenario, customers are preferring to stay indoors and they want to minimize their visit to showroom. Considering the convenience of the customers, India Yamaha Motor has introduced the online sales on its website with VIRTUAL STORE to enhance the buying experiences of its customers.

The new website will have all the latest features like the VIRTUAL STORE with 360 degree view of the products along with the specification comparison between Yamaha Products bundled under the Buyers Guide option on the website. The Yamaha dealerships will also provide their support in promoting the contactless delivery and use digital communication tools like WhatsApp etc. for communication with the customers. Through this website, customers can also opt for doorstep service for their purchase related enquiries based on his/her requirements.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Motofumi Shitara, Chairman, Yamaha Motor India Group of companies said, “Digital is future, and our new website with VIRTUAL STORE is ready to offer an enhanced buying experience and personalized customer services (One to one service) to the two-wheeler customers in India. Yamaha’s philosophy to offer excitement that goes beyond the customer expectations will unfold a new chapter with the new Yamaha website as we accelerate the digital transformation of Yamaha’s retail operations through a safe, reliable and engaging online portal. Bringing more innovation to the concept, in future our customers will also be able to purchase apparels & accessories on the same platform thus providing a ready solution with enhanced buying experience. Our existing after sales activities like extended warranty offers and roadside assistance will be an added advantage to the customers.”

Yamaha will start the online sales module from Chennai and will cover 300 dealerships across the nation by the end of 2020.

Meitra Hospital Launches Apheresis Unit Across Kerala State

Blood Centre and Department of Transfusion Medicine at Meitra Hospital has started the Apheresis procedure at their Blood Centre. The hospital now joins the elite group of medical facilities which routinely offers this procedure. An invasive procedure, it entails removing whole blood of a donor or a patient and subsequently separating its individual components by centrifugation. The required individual component is isolated for use while the remaining components are re-introduced into the blood stream of the donor or the patient.

There are several uses of the procedure and at present it is commonly used for collection of platelets from a single donor and is known as Platelet Apheresis. The extracted component is equivalent to6 units of platelets prepared from whole blood donation, resulting in not just a higher quantity of product with good quality; but also preventing multiple donor exposure to patients as well. By this procedure, the donor can donate platelets 2 times a week. The traditional form of whole blood donation requires a gap of one month before a second donation from the same donor to collect platelets. 

Apheresis not only aids in the collection of cellular or plasma constituents from a donor, it can also harvest peripheral blood stem cells from the donors and patients, thereby circumventing extraction from the bone marrow. These stem cells are then used for bone marrow transplant for several blood disorders like in certain types of blood cancers. The procedure prevents wastage and increases the ability to facilitate production of optimal components as required by the patient. 

“Modern medicine has witnessed giant strides in transfusion medicine resulting in a growing demand for blood components. In addition, there is an increasing concern about safety issues. Apheresis is not only a viable, but also a preferred procedure in current medical practices. In fact, the technique has recently found a great application in isolating the plasma of a person who has been cured of COVID-19 to treat those who are in a life-threatening situation following COVID-19 infections. This procedure is known as convalescent plasma therapy.” informed Dr. P Mohanakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer, Meitra Hospital.

Some of the other conditions apart from COVID-19, where the procedure proves beneficial can be in Systemic Lupus, Severe Vasculitis, Chronic Autoimmune Polyneuropathy, Dengue, Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis, Myasthenia Gravis, Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia, Goodpasture’s Syndrome, Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Hyperviscosity Syndrome (such as mixed Cryoglobulinemia, Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura), The HELLP Syndrome of Pregnancy, Clogging of blood vessels (Leukostasis) caused by severely elevated white blood count in Leukemia, andseverely elevated platelet counts in Leukemia or Myeloproliferative disorders as well as in cases of solid organ transplantation with a high risk of antibody-mediated rejection of the transplant.

Meitra Hospital aims to be at the fore front of the global best practices in healthcare as well as latest advancements. This is yet another step in the direction. Through this addition the facility aims to strengthen the medical care being currently offered not just in Kozhikode but also in the state of Kerala.

Mswipe Launches “Bank Box” to Revolutionize the Digital Payment Landscape for SMEs

 * New affordable offerings comprising of zero rental and zero MDR solutions

* Small businesses can collect and pay digitally even without a bank account

* Enters issuance business with Mswipe Moneyback Card to help merchants earn as they spend

* One-time digital KYC for hassle free and instant signup

Mswipe announced today the launch of Bank Box, a digital acceptance and payment solution designed to meet the cost-centric needs of MSMEs and merchants, as well as provide for a seamlessly integrated experience. Through this launch, Mswipe aims to pave the way for a futuristic payment solution platform and address key challenges that merchants and MSMEs face, with recurring costs on POS terminals like PoS rentals and Merchant Discount Rate (MDR).

Mswipe, India’s largest merchant acquirer with a network of 6.75 lakh POS and 1.1 million QR merchants, set out with the vision to build a cutting edge product – one that combines their acquiring and issuing platforms into a one-stop-shop, “Bank Box”, which enables easy signup, instant activation of the terminal and lifetime zero rental and zero effective MDR for merchants.

Manish Patel, Founder and CEO, Mswipe said, “COVID-19 has significantly impacted the earnings of small businesses, which in turn has led to curbed expenditures from their end. As a market innovator, Mswipe is helping MSMEs and merchants control costs incurred while accepting digital payments and further incentivize them to make digital payments. Essentially, Mswipe’s Bank Box facilitates small, medium and micro businesses to break into the digital ecosystem at the lowest possible TCO and sign up - even if they do not have a bank account.”

With a one-time digital KYC, businesses can choose between Bank Box Go - a POS solution with zero rental and zero MDR or Bank Box Lite - a QR solution with 0 rental and 1% cashback on all transactions and instantly go live. In both offerings a merchant gets a UPI QR and a Moneyback Card. Bank Box Go additionally provides an affordable mPOS capable of accepting chip + pin and contactless card payments. For Bank Box Go merchants have to pay a one-time fee of Rs. 4,000 plus taxes while for Bank Box Lite, they pay only Rs.199 plus taxes.

Sameer Hoda, President, Strategy and Operations, Mswipe said, “With Bank Box we have democratized the digital acceptance and payments ecosystem for the smallest of businesses by giving them a choice. With Mswipe now both an acquirer and issuer, we have provided an end-to-end digital enablement of MSMEs and merchants and empowered them to join the Digital Bharat movement.”

While mPOS allows acceptance of multiple modes of payments including UPI, Visa, Mastercard and American Express, mQR accepts payments from more than 150 UPI and mobile banking apps like PayTM, Axis Bank and BHIM among others. To spend digitally, merchants can load their Mcard with up to Rs. 1,00,000 per month.

Mswipe is targeting merchants with an average daily digital collection of Rs. 2,000 - Rs.2,500 in tier 3-4 markets and Rs. 8,000 - Rs. 10,000 in Metro and semi-urban areas.

About Mswipe:

Mswipe aims to be India’s largest financial services platform for SMEs and merchants by providing seamless mobile POS and value-added Services. It is the largest independent mobile POS merchant acquirer and network provider with 6.75 lakh POS and 1 million QR merchants across the country. Mswipe offers a host of POS solutions for all types of payment acceptance - cards, wallets, mobile payment apps and bank apps, contactless and QR payments. Headquartered in Mumbai, Mswipe began operations in 2011. Its key investors include B Capital, UC-RNT, Falcon Edge Capital, Matrix Partners India, DSG Partners and Epiq Capital. 

Stride Ventures Invests Rs 15 Crores in ZipLoan; Marks First Foray into Fintech Lending

Stride Ventures, one of India’s leading venture debt funds, has led a debt round of INR 15 crores in ZipLoan, a technology-enabled lending platform that provides loans to MSMEs. Through their customized offerings and deep relationships across banks and corporates, Stride aims to be a strategic partner in Ziploan’s journey.

This is Stride’s first foray into Fintech lending and the amount will be disbursed across two tranches. The investment underlines the firm’s commitment to leverage traditional banking capital to cater to the startup ecosystem.

ZipLoan caters to the need of working capital loans for kirana stores and micro industries. Its proprietary ZipScore platform, that tests creditworthiness of a borrower, has so far helped it maintain its non-performing assets (NPA) at under 3%. 

Ishpreet Gandhi, Founder and Managing Partner, Stride Ventures, said “We are excited to partner with ZipLoan in their pursuit to revolutionize lending to small business owners. It is our endeavour at Stride to make credit accessible and efficient as we try to prevent equity dilution and make entrepreneurs truly ‘Atmanirbhar’. The company has exhibited tremendous growth without compromising the quality of the loan book. We are confident that the company will continue to scale even in these challenging times.”

Kshitij Puri, Co-founder & CEO, ZipLoan, added, “We are privileged to partner with Stride Ventures as they help us realise our mission of addressing funding needs of small business owners. The MSME segment is the most important contributor to our economy, but still continues to be credit starved. Even during the current crisis, the MSME segment has shown great resilience demonstrated by strong collections we have had.” 

Stride Ventures launched its maiden fund in 2019 with a target corpus of INR 500 crores and plans to invest in 35-40 startups over the next 3 years.

About Stride Ventures 

Stride Ventures is focused on providing debt solutions to growth stage start-ups. Stride provides tailor-made debt solutions to start-ups, enabling them to strategically allocate capital. Bringing more than six decades of collective underwriting experience, the fund helps its portfolio companies leverage the banking ecosystem through their domain expertise and extensive network.

About ZipLoan

Ziploan is a tech-driven digital lender focused on small ticket business loans. Till date, Ziploan has disbursed approx. INR 400 Cr across 10,000 borrowers. Ziploan is present in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow and Dehradun. Ziploan is addressing the key pain point of small businesses i.e. access to formal credit by customizing the loan sourcing and underwriting process for its target customer base.

Jaguar Classic will Celebrate 60 Years of E-Type in 2021 with Anniversary Tribute Edition

 Anniversary Edition 

* In March 2021 Jaguar will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the iconic E-type

* Jaguar Classic is creating six limited-edition matched pairs of restored 3.8 E-types

* E-type 60 Edition specification includes commemorative detailing and exclusive paint colours, paying tribute to two of the most famous examples: ‘9600 HP’ and ‘77 RW’

* The E-type 60 Collection is available to order now. Customers interested in this unrepeatable opportunity should contact Jaguar Classic directly: www.jaguar.com/classic, sales@classic-jaguarlandrover.com

* For regular updates from Jaguar Classic, including the progress of the E-type 60 Collection, follow the new official @Jaguar.Classic account on Instagram

Jaguar Classic will create six matched pairs of E-types to celebrate the iconic sports car’s 60th anniversary in 2021: the E-type 60 Collection.

Each pair of E-type 60 Edition cars pay tribute to two of the oldest and most famous Jaguar E-types of all: ‘9600 HP’ and ‘77 RW’, which played pivotal roles in the unveiling of the car at its world debut in Geneva, Switzerland in March 1961.

An Opalescent Gunmetal Grey 3.8 l Fixed-Head Coupe registered ‘9600 HP’ was one of the first two E-types unveiled to specially-invited guests at the Parc des Eaux Vives. Driven ‘flat out’ to Switzerland from Coventry the night before the launch, public relations manager Bob Berry arrived with minutes to spare for demonstration drives.

With an outstanding reaction to the E-type resulting in overwhelming demand for drives with Berry, legendary Jaguar Test and Development Engineer Norman Dewis was told to ‘drop everything’ and drive a British Racing Green 3.8 l roadster registered ‘77 RW’ overnight from Coventry to Geneva.

Both cars were also used for media road tests, which proved the car’s sensational performance – including its 241.4km/h (150 mph) top speed – matched its jet aircraft-inspired lines honed in a wind tunnel by aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer.

Every E-type 60 Edition built by the team at Jaguar’s Classic Works facility in Warwickshire will be an existing 1960s 3.8 l E-type fully-restored to exclusive 60th anniversary tribute specification.

Each E-type 60 Collection pair will include one Flat Out Grey ‘9600 HP’ coupe and one Drop Everything Green ‘77 RW’ roadster, with unique paint formulations exclusively reserved for these cars. Each E-type 60 Edition will feature a number of 60th anniversary commemorative design details created in conjunction with Jaguar Design Director Julian Thomson.

Synonymous with the revolutionary zeitgeist of the Swinging Sixties, E-types were owned by celebrities including Steve McQueen, Brigitte Bardot, Frank Sinatra, George Harrison, Tony Curtis and Britt Ekland. And, thanks to the beauty of its sculptural forms, its functionality and its impact on design, an E-type became only the third car to join The Museum of Modern Art’s design collection in 1996.

Dan Pink, Director of Jaguar Classic, said: “The Jaguar E-type is a genuine icon, as sensational today as the moment it was unveiled in 1961. It’s testament to the E-type’s advanced design and engineering that it can still be enjoyed and admired as passionately almost 60 years on.

“The E-type 60 Collection is a lasting tribute for E-type admirers, honouring the car’s legacy and the achievements of the team that created it – many of whom have descendants working for Jaguar Classic today, expertly restoring, maintaining and future-proofing enjoyment for generations to come.”

Jaguar Classic is the world’s number one source of genuine parts and owner services for the E-type – from health-checks and sympathetic upgrades to restoring expertly selected examples to ‘Reborn’ specification, meticulously returning them to as-new condition.

For more information on the full range of cars, services, parts and experiences offered by Jaguar Classic, visit: www.jaguar.com/classic

For regular updates from Jaguar Classic, including the progress of the E-type 60 Collection, follow the new official @Jaguar.Classic account on Instagram.

Jawaharlal Nehru University Signs Strategic MoU with TechGig to Power Online Assessments for Faculty and Students

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has recently collaborated with TechGig Assess Online – a cutting edge assessment platform – to facilitate its academic assessments. TechGig is India’s one of the largest technology community and is a part of India’s leading digital media conglomerate – the Times Internet Ltd.

Both JNU and TechGig have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to corroborate this alliance. JNU hosted a workshop on 10th August, 2020 for its faculty members to announce this partnership followed by a hands-on demonstration of the platform by the TechGig’s team.

Online is becoming the preferred medium to ensure learning and education continuity amid the COVID-19 situation. In such a scenario, this new-age talent assessment has been developed by team TechGig indigenously, keeping the Indian education scenario in mind.

While inaugurating the digital platform, Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, JNU expressed his optimism that Assess Online will be a big boon for students residing in the far-flung areas of the county. “We were concerned about the future of the students – specially the terminal students. These students need to complete their exams so that they can continue with their higher education or apply for jobs, thereafter. This is where online assessment platforms come very handy. At JNU we have a ‘continuous evaluation’ system and I hope that Assess Online will be much help there”. Its noteworthy that JNU was the first higher education institute to introduce remote ‘viva’ for its students, which helped many to take exams from their respective locations, without worrying about visiting campus for just one exam day.

Talking about the partnership with JNU, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “We are thrilled to partner with one of India’s most reputable educational institute. Assess Online is India’s very own platform designed specifically to eliminate the struggles of Indian school/colleges teachers and students. It has advanced plagiarism detectors and remote proctoring measures to ensure a fair assessment. I am hopeful that JNU’s faculty and students will find it immensely helpful.” He also informed that Assess Online is already being used in 25+ colleges and 35+ schools pan-India. About 57,000+ assessments have been created and facilitated on Assess Online.

Assess Online is an easy-to-use platform that lets the teachers create the desired assessments using multiple tools. Its ‘auto-evaluation’ reviews students’ performance automatically, offering a lot of time for teachers to focus on enriched learning.

JNU plans to train its faculty members as well as the students through series of training programs to equip them well with state-of-the-art technological knowledge to enable them to deal with the present pandemic situation.

Revive Both Demand and Supply Drivers Say FAITH Bodies to Ministry of Tourism

 - Dual task forces strategy

- Safe gatherings learning from holy temple site templates

- Focused multi - language social media product advertising spurts

- Free E visa across categories

- Uniform quarantine policies

- Create consumer confidence, dispel fear

Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality, the policy federation of all the national associations representing the complete tourism, travel and hospitality industry of India (ADTOI, ATOAI, FHRAI, HAI, IATO, ICPB, IHHA, ITTA, TAAI, TAFI) had an inter association meeting with ministry of tourism.

FAITH and its 10 member associations in a multi association meeting with Ministry of Tourism proposed multi-step strategies for revival of tourism. These issues were identified to enhance tourism demand while protecting tourism supply in India.

Tourism encompasses multiple ministries and happens across states. It thus requires a coordinated approach across all the ministries at the central government level and between centre and state. FAITH Associations have proposed a dual task force strategy. An inter- ministerial task force at the central government level and an inter- state task force. These two task forces need to be empowered and need to be agile to fast track decision making as tourism will be the last sector to revive.

To stimulate domestic tourism FAITH associations recommended dispelling consumer fear and confusion by ensuring uniform inter-quarantine air & land border policy across all states. This will provide confidence and give knowledge to bath business and leisure tourists.

FAITH 10 associations proposed incentivising two segments domestic conferences and domestic consumers to travel within India by creating structured tax breaks.

As travel bubbles have started between India and international countries, FAITH associations proposed a multi-year e-visa holiday for all visa categories as and when till inbound demand to India stabilises. This needs to be complemented by publicising widely the revised 96 hour RT PCR policy for COVID testing and ensuring standardisation across all airports.

They also discussed holding the Indian Tourism Mart for international tour operators to establish confidence and showcase the incredible Indian tourism products in the first or the fourth week of November.

Marketing communication of tourism should be kickstarted which should focus on positivity & safety of Indian tourism while weaving these messages around different product segments, destinations, and incredible concepts of Indian tourism.

These could be multiple series of social media ads each with different versions of Indian and international languages to help stimulate both domestic & international tourism

Tourism demand can truly be activated if the tourism supply and value chain is healthy and doesn’t break down anywhere across travel agents, hotels, tour operators, tourist transporters or restaurants. Faith associations recommended multiple support and revival strategies for the same.

Tour operators and travel agents recognised by tourism ministry should be allowed to operate tours for adventure, religious, or education purposes which are recognised as LTC enabled agents & operators.

For the tourist hinterlands, remote last mile air connectivity must be enabled through a hub & spoke system under the Udaan policy with increased state support till private demand picks up. To ensure best practices in adventure, satellite phones and helicopter search and rescue needs to be enabled for adventure tours across the beautiful Indian adventure spots.

The meetings segment has to begin its revival process and FAITH associations said guidelines must be  considered to be revised upwards by allowing 300 indoors and upto 500 in open areas. A fine example of safe gatherings is the inauguration of the holy temple site by the honourable PM which can be showcased as a role model gatherings format. Meetings segment must now formally also include, recognise and officially support all forms social gatherings and movie shoots and virtual meetings. It is also critical for IGST to be enabled for hospitality industry which will enhance cross-state Indian meetings industry movement with companies getting gst credit while using hotels for meetings tourism in other states

FAITH Associations have requested Delhi Hotels to be unlocked as Delhi is the gateway of North India. They have also requested for all states to support hospitality by giving a statutory waiver on all fixed liabilities power costs, liquor permits, property cesses and so on. They have suggested that GST be rationalised for hotels above ₹7500 to be brought down to 12% from 18% which will stimulate domestic travel.

FAITH Associations to revive restaurants also requested for the GST option with full setoff made available for restaurants and restaurant GST be delinked from hotel tariffs.

To financially protect the tourism companies, till the resolution plan is set in motion by the RBI, FAITH Associations proposed extension of the moratorium of tourism & hospitality companies. They have also requested for automatic extension of all tourist transport and tour operators  permits , liquor licenses and other extensions.

The Indian travel agents are key enablers of the travel distribution. FAITH Associations requested for an even more healthy partnership approach between Indian travel agents, IATA & Air India. Travel agents and consumers also need to insured against airline payment defaults of their advances and cancellations and mechanisms need to be put in place.

FAITH spokesperson said that the FAITH Associations are hopeful that the demand generation measures and supply protection measures for tourism will be implemented quickly to kick start Indian tourism and express their gratitude to Tourism Ministry for initiating this exercise.

 About FAITH: FAITH, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality, is the National Federation of the 10 National Tourism, Travel and Hospitality organisations of India. These associations are ADTOI, ATOAI, FHRAI, HAI, IATO, ICPB, IHHA, ITTA, TAAI & TAFI.