OPPO India Announces 'OPPO Inspiration Cup' – A Coding Hackathon For Students

OPPO India, a leading technology brand, has announced OPPO Inspiration Cup, a unique coding hackathon to recognise and empower the innovative minds in the country. Driven by the quest to find the best, this hackathon is designed to provide a platform for engineering students across India to showcase their coding skills. Introduced under the Genius+ program, the OPPO Inspiration Cup will bring together brilliant minds from the country and inspire them to develop solutions that can support communities for a better tomorrow.

Spread over 08 weeks across different stages of the hackathon, OPPO has collaborated with Hacker Earth, one of the leading hackathon platforms, to organise this coding challenge. Participants of this program will be challenged on innovation and problem-solving skills during this duration. The program aims to test students' coding skills, and winning members with will have a chance to intern with OPPO India R&D and win exciting prizes.

Commenting on this program, Mr. Tasleem Arif, Vice President, India R&D Head, OPPO India, said, "Innovation has been one of OPPO's fundamental principles; however, in doing so, we remain committed to capability building – of the nation and the people. OPPO Inspiration Cup is the quest for the best like-minded talent in the country who can develop creative solutions for real-time technical challenges. Our brand proposition, Inspiration Ahead, motivates us to further the cause of building innovative technology, and we will continue inspiring our young innovators for the same."

The OPPO Inspiration Cup Hackathon will comprise three rounds overall. Round one of the challenges will include a timed coding challenge that will recognise 100 individuals eligible to move ahead in the competition. The first-round winners will be announced on October 12, 2022.The winners will be given access to a micro-site which will lead them to the next challenge starting on October 15, 2022. The second round will be in a similar format, albeit more challenging. The winners for this will be announced on October 19.

OPPO has been at the forefront of empowering and mentoring India's youth through multiple initiatives. The Genius+ program from OPPO India is introduced to support engineering students with scholarship programs. Additionally, OPPO has collaborated with academicians to promote research in camera and image processing, battery, networks (5G), system performance, and Artificial Intelligence, among other areas. The brand is also running Elevate Program to promote creativity in the start-up ecosystem in India.

Registration for the OPPO Inspiration Cup is open now and students can apply till October 8, 2022. To register for the challenge or learn more about it, please visit the official OPPO Inspiration Cup website at https://www.hackerearth.com/challenges/competitive/oppo-inspiration-cup/

About OPPO Mobiles India Private Limited

OPPO is a leading global smart device brand. Since the launch of its first mobile phone - “Smiley Face” - in 2008, OPPO has been in relentless pursuit of the perfect synergy of aesthetic satisfaction and innovative technology. Today, OPPO provides a wide range of smart devices spearheaded by the Find and Reno series. Beyond devices, OPPO provides its users with the ColorOS operating system and internet services like OPPO Cloud and OPPO+. OPPO operates in more than 50 countries and regions with more than 40,000 of OPPO's employees are dedicated to creating a better life for customers around the world.

Honda Cars India Amaze Crosses “5 Lakh Cumulative Sales Milestone”

Honda Cars India Ltd. (HCIL), leading manufacturer of premium cars in India announced that its popular family sedan Honda Amaze has cumulatively sold 5 lakh units since its first introduction in 2013. The car, presently in its second generation version, holds a strong position in India’s entry sedan segment and enjoys a preferred brand status among personal buyers. Amaze is presently the largest selling model for HCIL accounting for more than 40% of company sales. Being an India centric product, the Made in India Amaze from Honda’s Tapukara plant in Rajasthan is sold in both domestic and export markets in different countries.   

Developed and Designed as “One Class Above Sedan” with its bold design, sophisticated & spacious interiors, outstanding driving performance, advanced features and safety technologies, the Honda Amaze has created a strong customer base of young and aspirational buyers. 

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Takuya Tsumura, President & CEO, Honda Cars India Ltd said, “It’s a proud moment for us to achieve 5 lakh sales milestone for Honda Amaze. We would like to thank our customers for the love and acceptance they have shown for the brand and to our partners for their continuous support. Honda Amaze is our strategic entry model in India and key pillar of our business. Its popularity and acceptance in both big and small cities is a testament that the premium sedan not only matches the customer needs, but also exceeds their expectations.” He further added, “It’s our endeavor to offer latest technology, class-defining products with outstanding comfort, safety and peace of mind. The success of Amaze is reflection of our commitment to the market and our customers.”  

The Honda Amaze is a contemporary sedan with striking bold design, elegant and roomy interiors, exceptional driving performance, cutting-edge features and safety technologies. Available in both Manual Transmission and CVT in Petrol with 1.2L i-VTEC engine and also Diesel with 1.5L i-DTEC engine, the Honda Amaze adopts the best of Honda's powertrains to achieve a perfect balance of performance and fuel economy. 

Strong Popularity across markets 

Honda Amaze has created a strong presence and acceptance across markets. The model’s current sales contribution from Tier 1 markets is almost 40% while Tier 2 & 3 combined contribution is around 60%. 

Young and Aspirational Buyers 

Honda Amaze is the entry model in Honda’s line-up. Currently, almost 40% of its customers are first time buyers as Amaze is a great choice as a first car offering status of a premium sedan and great peace of mind with Honda’s famed durability, quality, reliability, low cost of maintenance and 3 years Unlimited Kms warranty. 

Rising share of Automatics 

With the growing popularity of automatic transmission models among customers, the share of automatics in Amaze has also progressively increased from 9% at the time of initial introduction in 2013 to currently more than 30%.   

Fuel Mix trend 

In line with the strong market shift towards Petrol during the last few years, the petrol variants of the Honda Amaze also dominate the overall Amaze sales across the country. 

Sterlite Power Commissions A Critical “400kV transmission Line” In Gujarat Four Months Ahead of Schedule

* Transmission line to potentially evacuate ~1000 MW of renewable energy to the national grid 

* Significantly augment Gujarat’s power transmission capacity, taking the state’s installed capacity to 11200 MW  

Sterlite Power’s Mumbai Urja Marg Transmission Limited (MUML), successfully commissioned 400kV Banaskantha, Kansari and Vadavi Transmission line in Gujarat.  The high voltage transmission line will help in the evacuation of ~1000 MW of renewable power from the pooling station at Bhuj in northern Gujarat to the national grid. In addition to that, the transmission line, which has been commissioned 4 months ahead of schedule, will significantly augment the available power transmission capacity of the state; taking it from 9300 MW to 11200 MW.  

This critical transmission line, part of the larger Western Region Strengthening Scheme-XIX (WRSS-XIX) and North-Eastern Region Strengthening Scheme-IX (NERSS-IX), will also decongest the regional network by reducing the burden on existing transmission lines comprising 400kV D/C Banaskantha-Veloda, 400kV S/C Bhinmal-Zerda (Kansari) and 400kV S/C Kankroli-Zerda (Kansari). 

The state of Gujarat significantly contributes towards the renewable energy goals of the country. Against India’s renewable capacity of 90 GW, the state’s contribution stands at ~12 GW. On the back of its strong energy infrastructure, Gujarat aims to establish more than 67 GW of renewable energy by 2030.  

Manish Agarwal, Director & CEO, India Transmission Business, Sterlite Power, said, “We are happy to demonstrate our project execution capabilities by ensuring timely execution of this critical transmission line for the state of Gujarat. The transmission corridors are critical infrastructure for the nation given their importance in connecting the power surplus centres with the power deficit corners. Not only this, but success of transmission projects is also imperative to India’s RE vision as it is a critical enabler of RE integration into the grid.” 

Sterlite Power acquired the MUML SPV in June 2020 to execute this large inter-State transmission system project. The entire debt funding of ?2,070 crore for the project is provided by Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFC).  

About Sterlite Power:  

Sterlite Power is a leading private sector power transmission infrastructure developer and solutions provider with a robust portfolio of 30 projects covering approximately 14,602 circuit Kms of transmission lines across India and Brazil. The Company has a portfolio of high-performance power conductors, extra-high voltage (EHV) cables and optical ground wires (OPGW). The Company provides bespoke solutions for the upgrade, uprate and fiberization of existing transmission infrastructure projects. Advancing the carriage toward a green energy-efficient future, Sterlite Power has an increasing focus on integrating renewable energy into the grid. It was the sponsor of IndiGrid, India’s first power sector InvIT, listed on Bombay Stock Exchange Limited and National Stock Exchange of India Limited. The Company was also recognised at The Economic Times Innovation Awards 2020 and is a recipient of awards from the International Project Management Association (IPMA).   For more details,  visit   https://www.sterlitepower.com 

Swaraj Tractors Crosses 20 Lakh Production Milestone; Rolls It Out At Mohali, Punjab

* Photo caption: Mr. Harish Chavan, CEO, Swaraj Division, M&M Ltd rolls out the 20th lakh tractor at the manufacturing plant in Mohali, Punjab.

* Reinforces customers’ trust & commitment of stakeholders in the Swaraj brand

Swaraj Tractors, part of Mahindra Group, one of the leading brands in the Indian Tractor industry, rolled out its 20th Lakh tractor from the company’s Plant in Mohali, Punjab on Tuesday. This milestone is a testament to the customers’ trust and confidence in the brand Swaraj.

Mr. Harish Chavan, CEO, Swaraj Division, M&M Ltd rolled out the 20th lakh tractor in a special ceremony attended by employees. Speaking on the occasion he said, “This achievement has further cemented brand Swaraj’s reputation of being reliable and one of the fastest growing brands in the domestic tractor market over the past few years. We are thankful to all our customers and stakeholders for their wholehearted support towards the growth of this brand.”

Since its inception in 1974, the first milestone of 10 lakh tractor production was achieved in 2013. Now within a span of just nine years, we have accomplished 20 Lakh tractor production in 2022, which is a testimony of the faster growth of the brand Swaraj. What makes this achievement more remarkable is the fact that this has come when the industry was going through unforeseen challenges due to the pandemic in the last couple of years.

Mr. Hemant Sikka, President, Farm Equipment Sector, M&M Ltd said, “This journey to reach the 20 Lakh production mark today has been challenging and exciting for us. We are happy that over the years Swaraj has been able to make a significant contribution to the lives of Indian farmers. Going ahead we look forward to providing more agri-based solutions and enabling mechanisation. This achievement is another stepping stone towards living our purpose of Transform farming and enriching lives”.

Swaraj manufactures tractors in the range of 15HP to 65HP and provides complete mechanisation solutions. The tractor major has also become a pioneer in horticulture mechanisation by recently introducing CODE by Swaraj, a multi-purpose farm machine. Currently, Swaraj has two fully functional tractor manufacturing plants, its own Foundry & R&D all located in Punjab, while another new manufacturing plant of Swaraj is also coming up in the state. 

About Swaraj

Swaraj Tractors a division of Mahindra Group is India’s second largest and fastest growing tractor brand. Established in 1974, based in Punjab, the grain bowl of India, Swaraj is a brand that is made by the farmer, for the farmer as many of its employees are also farmers. They bring real world performance and create an authentic, powerful product with assured performance and enduring quality, designed with one purpose – enabling the Indian farmer to Rise. Swaraj Tractors manufactures tractors in the range of 15HP to 65HP and also provides complete farming solutions.

Learn more about Swaraj Tractor on www.swarajtractors.com/

About Mahindra

Founded in 1945, the Mahindra Group is one of the largest and most admired multinational federation of companies with 260,000 employees in over 100 countries. It enjoys a leadership position in farm equipment, utility vehicles, information technology and financial services in India and is the world’s largest tractor company by volume. It has a strong presence in renewable energy, agriculture, logistics, hospitality and real estate.  

The Mahindra Group has a clear focus on leading ESG globally, enabling rural prosperity and enhancing urban living, with a goal to drive positive change in the lives of communities and stakeholders to enable them to Rise.

Honeywell Organized Digital Youth Empowerment Summit 2022 In Association With ICT Academy

* Initiative aims to help facilitate smooth entry of students into the workforce

Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF), the philanthropic arm of Honeywell, in partnership with ICT Academy organized the Honeywell Digital Youth Empowerment Summit 2022, which was attended by students from seven states. The objective of the summit was to facilitate smooth entry of graduating students into the workforce by enabling interactions between them and industry experts, including Human Resources (HR) leaders. Leaders from TCS, Tech Mahindra, Oracle, and Honeywell addressed the students at the summit.

This initiative is in continuation of the Honeywell Student Empowerment Program, which trains young men and women on advanced technologies such as cloud, big data, networking, robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning skills to help prepare them for the future of work. The program is being driven by HHSIF in collaboration with ICT Academy.

Kunal Ruvala, President, Honeywell Technology Solutions, said “As a technology company, Honeywell believes in promoting STEM education among the youth. Our work with ICT Academy enables us to strengthen the country’s STEM ecosystem. Our priority is to advance the development of tech skills for the future, and Honeywell along with ICT Academy are training and nurturing young minds to join the workforce of the future.” 

Hari Balachandran, Chief Executive Officer, ICT Academy, said, “Providing a proper guidance for the graduating students for their transition into the working world is much needed. The summit is an initiative to develop the confidence, right attitude, and ability to showcase their unique talents that will help them to stand out among the peers. At the summit, industry experts and HR leaders enlightened the students on the techniques that soften their landing into the challenging corporate world.”

Pooja Thakran, Director, HHSIF, said “Honeywell’s commitment to cultivating and fostering CSR programs that make real, sustainable, and measurable impact on communities is paramount. This includes our initiative to establish centres of excellence for skill development in 50 colleges across the country. Honeywell has pledged Rs 10 crore in the first year to develop these centres that will benefit women and youth.”

The Honeywell Student Empowerment Program offers a globally recognized certificate that will benefit students from marginalized sections of society. HHSIF and ICT Academy have established 50 Centers of Excellence for Youth Empowerment in tier one and tier two cities across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. This upskilling program will empower more than 15,000 students – half of whom are women – through the project cycle and provide job placements.

About Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF)

Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF) is a not-for-profit organization that deploys Honeywell’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts in three critical areas: (i) Education, Skill and Research (ii) Holistic and Sustainable Community Development, and (iii) Humanitarian Relief.  HHSIF’s programs include Honeywell STEM Education for Youth, a skilling program for women and youth to build a future-ready workforce; Honeywell Model Village for holistic rural development; Honeywell Start-up Support Program for incubation in deep science; Honeywell Center for Advancing Girls in Science at Avasara Academy to promote STEM education among girls; and Honeywell COVID-19 relief.

About ICT Academy

ICT Academy (www.ictacademy.in) is an initiative of the Government of India in collaboration with the state Governments and Industries. ICT Academy is a not-for-profit society, the first of its kind pioneer venture under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model that endeavours to train the higher education teachers and students thereby exercises on developing the next generation teachers and industry ready students. ICT Academy was started to meet the skill requirements of the industry and generate more employment especially in tier 2 and 3 towns, the rural parts of the country. Through its various initiatives, ICT Academy has been part of strengthening the India’s four important visions on Skill India, Digital.

Inovalon Expands Global Reach With Opening of India Development Center In Hyderabad

* Presence in India Grows as Inovalon Increases Support for its Cloud Solutions

Inovalon, a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions empowering data-driven healthcare, today announced the inauguration of its India Development Center (IDC) in Hyderabad. With its global technology team based in the U.S., Inovalon has formally increased its capacity in India to deliver innovation for its customers.

For the last eight years, Inovalon has contracted an India-based team to work across the Inovalon enterprise, supporting each of its business units in product engineering and information technology. Effective 1 August, 2022, these team members are now fully employed by Inovalon, and the IDC is now the largest single engineering office at Inovalon.

“We are proud to officially welcome this exceptional group to our organization and are excited to expand Inovalon’s reach globally,” said Eron Kelly, President, Inovalon. “Inovalon’s technology team is focused on delivering cloud solutions the improve clinical outcomes and economics in healthcare, and the Hyderabad location will further support that approach. This site will be a prominent location for our technology team, and great source of talent,” he added.

“The Inovalon ONE® Platform brings together solutions from across the technology ecosystem, and the Hyderabad center is uniquely positioned to help drive that collaboration. We expect to utilize the IDC to continue to increase the team by 15% in size to support growth in capabilities and collaboration,” said Sanjay Kumar, Vice President, Technology, Inovalon, and head of the India Development Center.

Inovalon has partnered with ANSR, a Bangalore-based firm that helps companies build, manage and scale high-impact global teams, to set up the IDC in Hyderabad. Lalit Ahuja, Founder and CEO, ANSR, said, “ANSR is delighted to partner with Inovalon as they look to innovate new ways to handle and analyze healthcare data securely, at scale, and with increasing efficiency through investments in people and technology. The India Development Center will build on Inovalon’s commitment to tap India's world-class talent, further developing their skills and subject matter expertise.”

About Inovalon

Inovalon is a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions empowering data-driven healthcare. The Inovalon ONE® Platform brings together national-scale connectivity, real-time primary source data access, and advanced analytics into a sophisticated cloud-based platform empowering improved outcomes and economics across the healthcare ecosystem. The company’s analytics and capabilities are used by more than 20,000 customers and are informed by the primary source data of more than 69.5 billion medical events across one million physicians, 611,000 clinical settings, and 350 million unique patients. For more information, visit www.inovalon.com.

Leading FMCG Brands Join The Udaan Platform; Over 150 Leading Brands Joined The Platform In The Last Six Months

*  Brands to benefit from udaan’s extensive retailer network

·         FMCG category on udaan will have over 250 brands on the platform serving small retailers and kirana stores across Bharat

·         Retailers to benefit with a wide variety of products being offered on the platform

udaan, India’s largest business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform, today announced that over 150 leading Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands have joined the platform in the last six months. The reputed brands stand to benefit from udaan’s robust network across the country and a long-standing relationship that the company shares with small retailers and kirana stores. With the addition of these brands, the FMCG category on udaan will now have over 250 brands on the platform to serve small retailers and kirana stores across Bharat.

Over the last six months, the Essentials category on the udaan platform witnessed leading FMCG brands including Cipla Health, Perfetti Van Melle, Reynolds, Pidilite etc making available a range of products at affordable prices to the retailers on the platform. The FMCG category plans to expand its presence from 1200 cities currently to over 1500 cities, thus benefiting both the brands as well as retailer partners on the platform while enjoying the benefits of e-Commerce scale.

Vinay Shrivastava, Head - FMCG Business, udaan said, “The rapid pace of digitisation and technology adoption across Bharat has resulted in leading FMCG brands joining the udaan platform to expand their distribution network in a cost-effective manner. We are delighted to lead this shift and emerge as the preferred partner for these brands and helping them tap the huge opportunity that the retailers across Bharat. We look forward to enabling more national and regional brands to grow their business while empowering small retailers and kirana stores of Bharat with a range of products at affordable and transparent prices.”

udaan is a one stop solution for all business requirements in B2B space. It has built inclusive tech tools for Bharat, specially catering to the needs of brands, sellers, retailers & manufacturers providing them a level playing field to scale, trade and grow their business.

udaan currently has a network of over 3 million registered users and 25-30,000 sellers across 1200+ cities in the country covering more than 12,000 pin codes. The platform has over 3 million retailers, chemists, kirana shops, HoReCa, farmers, etc. doing over 5 million transactions per month, making udaan a leader in the b2b eCommerce business.

udaan enables small manufacturers and brands to market and sell their products across the country at low cost. While doing so it enables small businesses such as shopkeepers, kirana, restaurants, street vendors, chemists, offices, small factories, contractors etc. to source from a large selection of products at great prices.

udaan has invested across different pillars of business - technology, supply chain, category, credit, people, compliance - to accelerate and strengthen capabilities to serve its customers better. The company has also undertaken various initiatives to enhance overall customer experience by leveraging deep customer analytics as well as improving the speed of the app.