ICICI Bank Launches ‘iFinance’, A Single-View For Savings And Current Accounts Across Banks

·         Leverages the Account Aggregator ecosystem to enable users to link their accounts

·         Crores of ICICI Bank customers as well as customers of other banks can view their accounts across banks in one place

·         They can access the one-view dashboard on ICICI Bank’s mobile banking and internet banking platforms 

ICICI Bank announces the launch of ‘iFinance’, enabling crores of customers-retail and sole proprietors, to get a consolidated view of their savings and current accounts in one place. Customers of other banks can also get the benefit from this facility, which ICICI Bank has introduced by leveraging the Account Aggregator ecosystem, on the Bank’s digital platforms, namely iMobile Pay app, Retail Internet Banking (RIB), Corporate Internet Banking (CIB) and InstaBIZ, the Bank’s mobile app for businesses.

‘iFinance’ provides a single-view dashboard of all accounts. Users can check account balances, get valuable insights on spending patterns, download statements and more. The dashboard offers significant convenience to users and assists them to exercise better control over expenses and monitor their finances in a seamless manner.  

Speaking on the launch, Mr. Sidharatha Mishra, Head- Digital Channels, ICICI Bank, said, “We, at ICICI Bank, remain committed to offer futuristic and innovative digital solutions to our customers. With the launch of ‘iFinance’, we are enabling our customers as well as customers of other banks to view their account data in one place and provide them a better control over their finances. This is the Bank’s initiative to introduce the convenience of open banking for customers by leveraging the Account Aggregator ecosystem. This unique feature also provides users with the facility to manage their expenses by analysing their spending patterns in a safe and secured place. The ‘iFinance’ facility is available across our mobile banking and internet banking platforms which provide ease of access to account information to the customers. We believe this new feature will help the users to conveniently monitor and manage their finances.”

The key features of ‘iFinance’ facility are:

·         Linking and viewing of all accounts: Users can securely link their savings and current accounts with all banks and view account balances at one place

·         Summary of income and expenditure: The facility allows users to get insightful summary of their income and expenditure which helps them monitor their finances properly

·         Track spending / payments: Users can track their spends and get category wise information of their expenses. This helps them in managing their expenses and overall financial health

·         Complete user control: The facility also provides increased convenience as the users can link and de-link accounts on real-time basis

·         Detailed statement(s): With this facility, users can also download consolidated account statement(s) of all linked Bank accounts

Users can avail ‘iFinance’ facility by following these steps:

·         Log in through ICICI Bank’s digital platform(s) namely iMobilePay, Retail Internet Banking, Corporate Internet Banking and InstaBIZ

·         Click on the ‘iFinance’ button and verify credentials

·         After the verification is completed, all Bank accounts that the users are holding with ICICI Bank and other banks, will be pre-populated

·         The user can select the Bank to link and provide consent to link accounts

·         Approved accounts will be displayed to the user

Also, customers of other banks can avail this feature by following the below steps:

·         Download the app

·         Register with mobile number

·         Click on ‘iFinance’ and follow the same steps mentioned above

For news and updates, visit www.icicibank.com and follow us on Twitter (X) at www.twitter.com/ICICIBank

About ICICI Bank: ICICI Bank Ltd (BSE: ICICIBANK, NSE: ICICIBANK and NYSE:IBN) is a leading private sector bank in India. The Bank’s total assets stood at Rs 16,47,000 crore at June 30, 2023.

[24]7.ai Announces Expansive Recruitment Drive To Onboard Over 7000 Professionals In FY’24

* Creating employment opportunities for India's diverse talent pool.4000 executives already onboarded in Bangalore & Hyderabad

* Interested candidates for customer service positions for voice and chat services can send their CVs on careers.india@247.ai

* Extensive 45-to-90-day training provided to freshmen to ease them into the workplace with options for short- and long-term employment.

24]7.ai, a global leader in intent-driven customer solutions and contact center services, has ramped up recruitment at its Bangalore and Hyderabad centers. The company is actively hiring Customer support advisors for both voice and chat services. Leveraging India's expansive talent pool, [24]7.ai is also set to strengthen its workforce by targeting talent from key Tier 2 & 3 cities like Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Dharwad, Chittoor, Tirupati, Coimbatore, Vizag and Vijayawada. The company already has hired over 40% of its Talent needs with candidates from Tier2 cities.

With the recruitment drive already underway, the company is proactively collaborating with educational institutions to leverage the growing pool of nascent fresher talent, who will account for one-third of the company's talent needs. Concerted women centric recruitment drives have also taken up the women centric hires to 41% of overall recruitment. [24]7.ai was recently rated amongst the “Top 50 best places to work for women” by the global expert in workplace culture, ‘Great place to work’- for the 5th consecutive year.

Namit Jauhari Country Head India, [24]7.ai said, “It is promising to see that the landscape of employment in India is finding new centers of talent in Tier-2 & 3 cities. We look forward to contributing to the growth of these emerging talent hubs by hiring and fostering a dynamic and inclusive workforce. Opportunities are offered for fixed term and short-term hiring so that both graduate and undergraduate talent can benefit from our intensive training programs and exposure to working for Fortune 500 companies.”

Nina Nair, SVP & HRD Head, India and Americas, [24]7.ai said, “We are excited to welcome freshers and fruitfully engage them through smooth campus to corporate transitions, leveraging on our robust training processes. We stay strongly invested in our people and nurture freshers to grow them into leaders. A testimony to this, is our consistent ranking for the 5th consecutive year amongst the ‘Top 100 best workplaces’ and ‘Top 50 best workplaces for women’ by Great Place To Work, the global authority on workplace culture.”

This year's recruitment drive is geared towards providing full-time positions as well as fixed-term employment options as an opportunity for education to aspirants who prefer a short-term work engagement. The company has in place initiatives like ‘Earn while you learn scheme’ that also provides undergraduates an experience of work life as they continue to study. To ease in freshers, ‘Campus to corporate’, on-the-job learning initiatives, soft skills training and coaching initiatives are in place for smoother transitions. The new joiners also get an opportunity to work with Fortune 500 clients using cutting- edge conversational ai technology. to empower and support them.

About [24]7.ai

[24]7.ai software and services use artificial intelligence, human insight, and deep vertical expertise to produce personalized, consistent, and satisfying customer experiences. The company's advanced conversational AI platform, combined with more than 20 years of contact center operational expertise, empowers the world's largest and most recognizable brands to deliver natural, frictionless conversations across all digital and voice channels. For more information, visit http://www.247.ai.

[24]7 and [24]7.ai are trademarks of [24]7.ai, Inc. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

Schwing Stetter India Supports Young Indians’ – “Chotta Cop” Initiative To Promote Road Safety

* “The company helps create impactful road safety awareness videos for the cause during Yi road safety summit 2023.”

Schwing Stetter India, one of the country’s leading concreting equipment manufacturers has recently partnered with Young Indians (Yi) for their “Chotta Cop” initiative that aims to train Yuva students to be certified first respondents - over the course of next five years about one crore students are to become good samaritans (Farishtey) through the programme.

Yi road safety summit was organized recently at the JW Marriot, New Delhi, where the awareness videos were officially launched.

Speaking at the summit on “The role of corporates in ensuring road safety,” Mr.V.G.Sakthikumar, Chairman and Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India said, “It is a social obligation for any individual to understand why road safety matters and how road accidents not only cause injuries, but also economic loses. As a company, we always follow strict protocols at our construction sites as we are conscious about environment and its impact on the other stakeholders involved.”

“It gives me immense pleasure to see initiatives like Chotta Cop reach the young and upcoming generation – their good samaritans act will influence more people. The videos that we have created in collaboration with Young Indians’ will reach more than a million students. Meanwhile, more corporates like us should invest and promote road safety by partnering with NGO’s, local authorities and the government to improve road infrastructure in India. Schwing Stetter India believes our success is measured not only by the machines we build but also by the lives we help protect on the roads every day.” he added.

Some of the other prominent speakers at the summit include - Dr. Ankit Varshney, Delhi Sports Doctor, Dr. Neharika Yadav, Dental surgeon, Jitendar Sharma, Editor-crime & Investigation Zee media corporation Limited and S S Yadav, IPS & Special CP Traffic Police, Delhi.

About Schwing Stetter India Private Limited:

Incorporated in June 1998, and commencing its manufacturing operations in 1999, Schwing Stetter India is a 100% subsidiary of Schwing GmbH, a 1.30 billion USD German concreting machinery manufacturer and a part of XCMG group. Schwing Stetter is a pioneer in manufacturing equipment for concrete preparation, placement, transportation, and recycling. Schwing Stetter (India) Private Limited manufactures concrete batching plants, concrete placing booms, concrete pumps, concrete truck mixers for transporting readymade concrete to construction sites, concrete truck mixers with concrete pumps, concrete recycling plants, plastering pumps, self-loading mixers, and sludge pumps.

Schwing Stetter (India) sells and services equipment like concrete pavers, aerial working platform, all terrain crane, cold milling machine, crawler crane, excavator, horizontal directional drilling, motor grader, rotary drilling rig, tower crane, truck crane and wheel loader are our various newer range of equipment that have been launched recently from GOMACO and XCMG. We cater to the requirement of infrastructure developers and act as an OEM supplier to various cement companies who offer ready mix concrete. Schwing Stetter has its manufacturing units in 12 countries including Germany, Austria, USA, Brazil, Russia, Ostrava, UK, India supported by sales and service centers in France, Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden as well as representations in more than 150 countries Worldwide. Contact us on : https://www.schwingstetterindia.com/  

Atlassian Announces Appointment Of Paranth Thiruvengadam To India Site Leader And Head Of Engineering ITSM

Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ: TEAM), a leading provider of team collaboration and productivity software and the maker of Jira Software, Confluence, Bitbucket, and Trello, announces the appointment of Paranth Thiruvengadam to India Site Leader and Head of Engineering ITSM (IT Service Management). 

In the new dual role, Paranth will focus on leading Atlassian’s 1700-strong India-based workforce and driving its ITSM customer-centric approach. 

He joins Atlassian with 20+ years of experience across technology and business leadership roles including Chief Technology Officer at Clear (formerly ClearTax) and MedLife, and senior positions at Yahoo!, IBM Labs and Walmart Labs. He has a rich background in developing SaaS platforms, web applications, infrastructure and transaction platforms that span across finance, supply chain, healthcare, taxation, and regulatory compliance. 

Rajeev Rajan, Chief Technology Officer, Atlassian, says, “Paranth is not only a scaled engineering leader, but has a proven track record in driving product strategy and business metrics, too. His experience will be invaluable in building our ITSM solutions alongside our operations in India, our fastest-growing location.” 

Paranth adds, “Crafting ITSM product on both technology and business strategy provides a distinctive chance to introduce innovation and shake up the market for enterprise and small business products. Utilising the talent pool in a strategic location such as India uniquely situates us to tap into the top technologists while maintaining our competitiveness through a profound understanding of customer needs." 

Atlassian, whose R&D center is located in Bengaluru, was recently ranked number eight in India’s Best Companies to Work For 2023 by the Great Place to Work Institute. 

About Atlassian 

Atlassian unleashes the potential of every team. Our agile & DevOps, IT service management and work management software helps teams organize, discuss, and complete shared work. The majority of the Fortune 500 and over 260,000 companies of all sizes worldwide - including NASA, Kiva, Deutsche Bank, and Salesforce - rely on our solutions to help their teams work better together and deliver quality results on time. Learn more about our products, including Jira Software, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Trello, Bitbucket, and Jira Align at https://atlassian.com. 

JLR India Retails 2,356 units In H1 Of FY24: Records Best-Ever Half-Yearly Sales

* JLR India H1 retail sales doubled with a YoY growth of 105%

* Achieved highest ever Q2 retail sales of 1,308 units with a YoY growth of 108%

* Order book remains strong with a growth of 90% in H1 vs the same period last year

* Recently launched 24MY Range Rover Velar has received a great response with over 750 orders  

* Defender achieves sales of 1,000 units in H1 with YoY growth of over 250%

JLR India today reported its best ever H1 performance with record sales of 2,356 units and a YoY growth of 105% during the April – September 2023 period. The strong half yearly growth was driven by record sales in both quarters, with Q2 witnessing a 108% YoY growth and retails of 1,308 units. JLR India had previously reported a 102% sales growth in Q1, compared to the same period last year.

The order book in FY24 has seen consistent growth, with H1 closing order book higher by 90% compared to the same period last year. Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Defender continue to witness strong demand contributing to 72% of the total order book. The current total order book covers for more than eight months of sales.

Mr. Rajan Amba, Managing Director, JLR India, said, “We are pleased with our strong performance in H1 and Q2 FY24. The consistent growth in our order book exemplifies the growing strength of our brand and products in the hearts of Indian consumers. We will continue to introduce new products that are best suited to meet the discerning needs of our customers and invest in strengthening our brand desire and client experience.”

The successful launch of 24MY Range Rover Velar along with growing demand for Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Defender underpins the strong sales performance in H1. Defender was the best-selling model with sales of 1,000 units in H1.

JLR certified pre-owned business grew by 83% in H1 FY24.

CtrlS Datacenters Lays Out $2 Billion Investment Plan Over The Next Six Years Globally

Identifies three strategic investment areas over the next six years:

(A) Augmented footprint of hyperscale datacenters that are custom-built for AI and cloud workloads

(B) Achieve Net Zero

(C) Augment team strength & capabilities

Close on the heels of a spate of top management leadership hiring, CtrlS Datacenters Ltd, Asia’s leading Rated-4 datacenter service provider, today announced its new investment plan of $2 billion over the next six years.

The company has identified three key areas of focus as it looks to scale its operations, reaffirm its commitment to the region, and further establish its leadership position:

Add 350 MW of AI & Cloud-ready Hyperscale Datacenters:

With the massive surge in adoption of AI applications and Cloud technologies, the demand for AI and cloud ready datacenters is on the rise. CtrlS Datacenters will invest in several key technologies and strategies in areas such as advanced cooling, power management, and overall infrastructure design in its new hyperscale datacenters.

These will include: Liquid Cooling (Direct-to-chip or immersion cooling), AI HVAC, AI Optimised Rack Layout, High-Efficiency Power Infrastructure etc, and will provide a plug-n-play environment for emerging technology service providers to grow their IT footprint seamlessly.

At present, CtrlS Datacenters has 12 state-of-the-art datacenters with 234 MW capacity spread across seven major cities including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Noida, Lucknow, and Patna. The investment plan involves the addition of approximately 350 MW capacity across new and existing hyperscale and edge datacenters in both India and select Southeast Asian markets.

Achieve Net Zero or Carbon Neutral by 2030:

CtrlS Datacenters is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2030. The company is investing in 153-Megawatt Peak (MWp) solar projects across three markets, that will generate 2,50,000-Megawatt Hours (MWh) energy annually. This includes a 145 MWp solar project in Maharashtra that will be fully owned and operated by the company. By 2025, CtrlS Datacenters plans to invest in additional 300 MWp projects.

CtrlS Datacenters aims to achieve its Net Zero goals through a multi-pronged strategy, going beyond renewable energy. The company will further enhance its water conservation measures by deploying more advanced water recycling technologies in line with its goal of 100 percent usage of recycled water at all of its datacenters.

Double headcount by 2029:

CtrlS Datacenters is aggressively strengthening the organization by constantly hiring and skilling. The company has brought onboard several industry veterans from global MNCs to strengthen its leadership team and drive its growth. The global leadership team received a boost with Royce Thomas (from Equinix) joining as President & Chief Business Officer, Ashish Ahuja (from Google) joining as Chief Technology Officer, Vipin Jain (from AWS) joining as President-Datacenter Operations and Mohit Pande (from Jefferies) joining as Chief Financial Officer, besides other senior leaders.  

As CtrlS Datacenters expands its footprint and broadens its portfolio, the company is expected to hire over 1,000 people in the next six years.

Recognized as a ‘Great Place to Work’ and ‘Great Place to Work for Women’, the company is attracting the best talent in every sphere of datacenter design, build and operations and making them part of its growth journey.

Commenting on the investment plans, Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Founder & Chairman of CtrlS Datacenters, said, "Since 2007, we have been committed to innovation and excellence, and the present surge in AI and cloud technologies warrants that we stay relevant to these changing market dynamics, while leading the charter of sustainability. We aspire to not only bolster our presence across key markets delivering the next generation of datacenter technology, but also to elevate the standard for the entire datacenter industry through pioneering services and sustainable practices." 

CtrlS Datacenters has cultivated a unique organizational capability that allows it to add substantial capacities every year. With its sights set on the critical growth phase, CtrlS Datacenters aims to capitalize on the ongoing digitization revolution in India and the growing demand for next-generation datacenters.

About CtrlS Datacenters

CtrlS Datacenters Ltd, which began its operations in 2007, operates 12 datacenters across seven key markets and will begin operation of three new datacenters in 2023. The company is embracing renewable energy for a sustainable future. CtrlS Datacenters has announced its plans to explore new overseas markets in Southeast Asia and Middle East. Homepage: www.ctrls.in

Duolingo's Big Reveals In Music, Math, And Advanced English At Duocon 2023

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL), the world’s leading mobile learning platform, shares its latest product vision that harnesses its proven, gamified teaching methods to expand to new subjects: Music and Math. Company leaders debut the new experiences at Duocon, the largest free global event at the intersection of language, learning, and technology.

“Duocon is about celebrating our millions of dedicated learners worldwide,” says Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO. “We are focused on building the best education possible and making it universally available. With our expansion into Music and our updates to Math, we’re one step closer to that goal.”

Expanding beyond language

In a headline talk, Severin Hacker, co-founder and CTO, delves into the company’s expansion into Math and Music, subjects that transcend cultures and people, just like language. He details updates to the Math course, which will include more advanced real-world math skills, including calculating tips and hourly wage, to sharpen adult learners’ mental math. And Engineering Director Vanessa Jameson offers a look under the hood of Duolingo’s brand-new Music course. Jameson shares how the company approached music education while maintaining Duolingo’s signature, gamified interface.

Teaching better

English is the number one language learned on Duolingo because English proficiency often opens doors to better job or education opportunities. To help these learners advance towards their goals, Duolingo announces a new Immersive Learning Experience for Advanced English, a curriculum designed for English learners at more advanced levels of language proficiency.

Bozena Pajak, VP of Learning and Curriculum, also walks audiences through the Duolingo Method, Duolingo’s proven teaching principles that guide content creation, lesson design, and course development. Learning experts unveil new features designed to improve learning outcomes in some of our biggest courses, including:

* DuoRadio, dynamic, podcast-style audio lessons in select language courses.

 A game-changing tool for learning the unique writing systems of Japanese and Mandarin, some of the fastest-growing languages on the app.

More fun than ever

Duolingo’s global community of more than 74 million monthly active learners complete 9 billion exercises a week. Product experts at Duolingo reveal upcoming features and content designed to make learning on the new multi-subject app even more delightful, such as:

* Adventures, a new mini-game where learners play as Duolingo characters and put their language skills to the test in interactive scenarios.

* A new season of The Duolingo French Podcast, hosted by Oscar-winning actress Ariana DeBose, tells the untold story of 1920s dance icon Josephine Baker—who was also a spy for the French Resistance.

An exclusive interview with Malala

And finally, Duolingo co-founder and CEO, Luis von Ahn, hosts a wide-ranging conversation with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai about her work advocating for the right of all children to education.

For more information on the talks and product announcements, tune in at duolingo.com/duocon.

About Duolingo

Duolingo (www.duolingo.com) is the most popular language-learning platform and the most downloaded education app worldwide. The app makes learning new languages fun with bite-sized lessons that feel like playing a game. The company's mission is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. Duolingo offers over 100 language courses across 41 distinct languages, from Spanish, French, German, and Japanese to Navajo and Yiddish.