Prime Minister Modi to Kick off Execution of 20 Smart Cities On June 25

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the execution of works in proposed 20 smart cities across the country in Pune on Saturday.

The PM will launch the “Smart Cities Mission” projects from Pune’s 5,000-capacity Shiv Chatrapati Sports Complex, said a release from the Urban Development Ministry. The works will start simultaneously in 20 cities across the country.

On the day of execution of the scheme, the Prime Minister will launch 14 projects under the Smart City Plan of Pune. Besides another 69 such projects will be launched the same day through video conference in the remaining 19 smart cities, entailing a total investment of about Rs.1,770 crore.

The projects to be launched in Pune and other cities include Solid Waste Management projects under Swachh Bharat Mission, water supply projects, sewage treatment plants and development of open and green spaces.

Of the proposed 100 smart cities, the Urban Development Ministry has decided to start constructing first set of 20 smart cities in this fiscal.

These 20 cities have proposed a total investment of Rs 48,000 crore in area development and pan-city solutions.

The prime minister will also inaugurate “Make Your City SMART” contest aimed at involving citizens in various activities, including designing roads, junctions and parks.

Suggestions and designs suggested by citizens will be duly incorporated by respective smart cities. Winners of this contest will be given rewards in the range of Rs.10,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

Modi will also inaugurate a Smart Net Portal, which enables the cities under different urban missions to share ideas.

Some of the projects to be launched include those in New Delhi Municipal Council area where mini-sewerage treatment plants, 444 smart classrooms, Wi-Fi, smart LED streetlights, city surveillance and command and control centre would be initiated.

In Belagavi (Karnataka), the prime minister will launch natural gas distribution network, rooftop solar plant, GSM-based monitoring of solid waste collection vehicles.

Agencies

Enterprise Spending on Mobile App Development Remains Very Low

Forty-two percent of organizations expect to increase spending on mobile app development by an average of 31 percent in 2016, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. Despite this, the average proportion of the overall application development budget allocated to mobile is only 10 percent, a 2 percent decrease from 2015.

The Gartner survey of IT and business leaders responsible for mobile strategy and/or custom mobile app development within their organizations was conducted in September 2015 across the United States, EMEA, Latin America and Asia/Pacific. The survey focused on understanding organizations' activities in mobile app development, covering both business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) apps.

 "Demand for mobile apps in the enterprise is growing, but the urgency to scale up mobile app development doesn't yet appear to be a priority for most organizations," said Adrian Leow, principal research analyst at Gartner. "This must change, particularly given employees often have the autonomy to choose the devices, apps and even the processes to complete a task. This places an increasing amount of pressure on IT to develop a larger variety of mobile apps in shorter time frames."

The survey revealed that the majority of enterprises developing mobile apps are focused on custom mobile app development, rather than customizing configurable apps or building from off-the-shelf templates. Gartner believes that given most development teams use custom app development for all of their apps, extending this to mobile is a natural behavior. Additionally, many off-the-shelf mobile apps still require significant development activity to integrate the back-end databases and applications into the mobile app front ends.

 "If developers have to spend 70 percent of their time getting the integration right, they shouldn't have to make compromises on the front end by constraints inherent in prepackaged mobile apps," said Leow. "The selection of prepackaged mobile apps is also still quite limited from many providers."

According to Gartner, the range of mobile apps in use across the enterprise varies among user groups and lines of business in terms of the apps' adherence to corporate and security policies.

 "When you add in the public apps that users are adopting personally, such as Dropbox, to use for business, the management problem becomes clear," said Leow. "IT's ability to inventory and distribute these apps is fragmented at best, and more often it's incomplete."

Leow believes the solution to this issue of app management fragmentation and rogue apps is to pursue the development of an enterprise app store. The survey revealed that organizations have 26 mobile apps in their own enterprise app store on average, with a third of those mobile apps being custom-built, while the remainder are prepackaged apps (such as Box, Evernote and SAP Fiori).

JANUS Brandy Wins Accolade at International Sprits Challenge 2016

In 2015, Sula Vineyards, India's #1 wine company announced the launch of JANUS – India’s first 100% premium grape brandy. This is another milestone for the company who are proud to announce that JANUS has been awarded a Bronze Medal in the tasting category at the International Spirits Challenge (ISC) 2016. ISC is the most authoritative, respected and influential spirits competition in the world. In the blind tasting JANUS took home a bronze from an impressive line-up of spirits.

“We are thrilled to receive this prestigious recognition,” said Rajeev Samant, CEO, Sula Vineyards “This acknowledgement further validates JANUS’ groundbreaking project to create India’s first 100% premium grape brandy. Winners are determined in part by experts in the industry. We are pleased that they have recognized our efforts to lead the industry in terms of innovation and quality.”

JANUS is India’s first 100% grape brandy. Deriving its name from the ancient Roman deity with two faces, JANUS embodies the exceptional French Cognac making heritage and the expertise of Sula in selecting the best Indian grapes. JANUS is made from carefully selected grapes from the best Indian vineyards which are then double distilled in small batches using traditional French alembic pot stills, to produce a liquor of exceptional smoothness and character Award organiser Justin Smith said: “This year’s judging was tougher than ever before with consistent quality found across each category. It made for a series of fascinating blind tasting sessions, with our experts coming to their final conclusions led by the experience of the chairmen.”

 Winning an ISC award is an impressive achievement for any spirit that passes the scrupulous blind assessment from the experienced panel of specialist judges.

JANUS is currently available in 750 ml and 180 ml. A 750 ml in Karnataka is priced at Rs 1900, Andhra Pradesh Rs 2390, Telangana Rs 2265. In Goa, Pondicherry, Daman and Silvassa JANUS is retailed at Rs 1500 and available across leading outlets. It is manufactured by Artisan Spirits, 100% subsidiary of Sula Vineyards.

Sula Vineyards Pioneer’s in Wine Tourism:

Sula Vineyards is by far India’s first choice in wine. Their

award-winning wines are available nationwide at the finest hotels and restaurants, and are also exported throughout the world. Sula is on track to sell a million cases of wine in 2016.

Sula is also a pioneer in India’s wine tourism opening the country’s first winery Tasting Room in 2005 and first vineyard resort, Beyond by Sula, in 2007. With over 230,000 visitors last year, Sula is one of the most visited wineries in the world and the #1 spot where Indians first taste wine.

Sula Vineyards recently won the prestigious Drinks Business Award 2016 for the ‘Best Contribution to Wine and Spirits Tourism’! This is the first time an Indian company has won a Drinks Business Award.

Firmly committed to remaining at the forefront of Indian wines, Sula continues to experiment with new varietals, engage in sustainable agriculture and support the local rural economy. Sula is well on its way to becoming one of the world’s most sustainable wine producers. In addition, the company is also a leading wine and spirits importer, with Sula Selections, a portfolio of prestigious brands like Remy Cointreau, Hardys, Ruffino and Asahi.

Adobe Announces Creative Cloud Innovations in India & Stock Updates

Taking aim at the inefficiencies that slow down the creation process, Adobe has launched major updates to its flagship Creative Cloud tools and services in India and around the world. The release includes dramatic new features in Adobe’s flagship applications, performance enhancements across Creative Cloud (CC), and exciting updates to Adobe Stock -- including deeper integration within CC and the addition of an all-new premium collection of high quality stock content. Spanning across virtually all of the Creative Cloud portfolio, updates in this new release target many of the pain points that designers, photographers and filmmakers face every day.

“The industry is going through unprecedented changes driven by mobile explosion, and content velocity is becoming more critical in tying content and customer experience to business impact and success. However, we know only 16% of marketers and business leaders in Asia Pacific say they have the workflows in place to enable the alignment and collaboration needed to deal with the scale of content production they’re facing.,” said Mr. Paul Robson, President, Adobe Asia Pacific. “This release delivers the magic and improved workflow that unleashes creativity and helps organizations ultimately provide superb customer experience across channels.”

“Aimed at helping our customers save time and jump start their creative engines, Adobe is constantly focused on developing new product innovations that delight our customers. Today, we are excited to announce a host of advancements to our Creative Cloud portfolio, many of which have been built in our own RandD labs, such as Photoshop Match Font. We are confident that these powerful enhancements will deliver tremendous value for our customers in India and across the globe, and make an immediate impact on the way creative people work every day,” said Kulmeet Bawa, Managing Director (Designate), South Asia, Adobe. “We anticipate that new Creative Cloud capabilities like Content-Aware Crop in Photoshop and Character Animator Preview in After Effects CC, as well as Adobe Stock’s deeper integration with CC portfolio will provide a major boost to the productivity of creative workers and organizations in India.”

Today‘s updates mark another step forward in establishing Creative Cloud as the one-stop shop for creative people -- providing the bestin desktop tools, mobile applications, training and a vibrant marketplace featuring services like Adobe Stock, as well as access to theBehance community that’s now over 7 million strong.

“Digital Next realities continue to warrant creating and re-purposing of content, and Prime Focus Technologies has over the years emerged as an industry leading partner to content enterprises for delivering cutting edge technology solutions. Our recent launch at NAB 2016 was end-to-end business process orchestration for promo creation including automation of promo versioning using Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC. We look forward to leveraging the advancements, specifically the new Adobe Premiere Pro CC to deliver standout digital creative content for our customers.,” said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, Founder and CEO, Prime Focus Technologies.

“In view of technological impact on socio-cultural environment, the delivery platform is as critical as the curriculum. It is absolutely necessary to ensure that the delivery model appeals to students. At Extramarks, we create learning solutions that comprise of a unique blend of text, images, audio and videos that engages learners and makes learning easy and effective leading to lifelong retention. Over the years, Adobe Creative Cloud products have been the backbone for our learning solutions and helped us curate modules to suit the evolving trends. We congratulate Adobe on the new features in Creative Cloud and look forward to exploring these innovations to further build on our brand.,” said Atul Kulshrestha, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, Extramarks.

Highlights of Creative Cloud innovations announced by Adobe today include:

 Built Right into Creative Cloud: Adobe Stock Service Offers Best, Broadest Selection

Research from Pfeiffer Consulting confirms that integrating Adobe Stock with CC desktop applications delivers up to 10 times greater  efficiency than other stock services*.  The expanded Adobe Stock service includes over 55 million royalty-free, high-quality photos, videos, illustrations and graphics as well as the following new capabilities:

·         One-Click Workflow.  Deeper Adobe Stock integration with CC applications enables a new One-Click Workflow that lets users select an image or video on the Adobe Stock website and place it on their creative canvas with a single click.  Also an expanded In-app Purchase feature delivers an industry-first, one-click license capability, directly from Photoshop.

·         Premium Collection. Adobe’s first premium content offering sourced for Adobe Stock includes nearly 100,000 curated images that meet the standards of top advertising agencies, leading brands and digital and print publications.

·         Monetization Made Easier.  Coming soon, Adobe will expand on its vision to build out the world’s largest creative marketplace by offering opportunities for creative professionals to contribute and monetize their work.  They can contribute directly from desktop and mobile applications including Adobe Lightroom CC, Adobe Bridge CC, Photoshop Fix and Photoshop Mix, providing an easy on-ramp to showcasing and selling their work via Adobe Stock.  Also coming soon is Adobe’s new Stock Contributor Portal, which will feature intelligent auto-tagging capabilities saving hours of keywording.

Sales Associates Play Pivotal Role in the Shopper Purchase Journey: New Mindtree Study

A new study shatters the myth that, in retail stores, most shoppers do not like to be disturbed by sales associates. It also highlights the highly positive influence sales associates have on influencing shopper purchases. The cross-industry survey was released today by Mindtree, a leading digital transformation and technology services company.

Many shoppers rely on interaction with sales associates to make purchasing decisions, especially in more complex product categories like consumer electronics, home improvement and others. When helped, it leads to significant increase in the amount of the shopper’s transaction, as well as in repeat purchases. Too often, shoppers can’t find sales associates when they have a question. This is a negative experience which leads to shoppers moving to either a different store or to an online channel.

Sales associates are aware that their influence leads to more sales conversions. However, their efforts are spread thin – they assist both serious shoppers and casual browsers, reducing their efficiency and conversion ratio.

“Conventional thinking in the retail industry is that most shoppers want to be left alone, and that sales associates too often annoy shoppers by trying to offer assistance. The Mindtree survey paints a surprisingly different picture,” said Sunil Oberoi, Senior Vice President and Head, Retail, CPG and Manufacturing, Mindtree. “Shoppers respond positively when they receive helpful guidance from an associate. A timely assistance in store can lead to an 80% increase in transaction value.”

Gaurav Johri, Senior Vice President and Head, Platforms and Solutions Group, Mindtree said, “A key part of successful omnichannel retailing is all about delivering timely and helpful recommendations to shoppers that help them feel more confident in making a purchase. There is a huge untapped opportunity for retailers to increase conversions and enhance customer loyalty in the store.  Mindtree’s platforms, Flooresense and ShotClasses, are built to equip sales associates with real time capabilities to enhance in-store shopper experience and optimize sales time.”

The purpose of the survey, which is titled, “Impact of Sales associates on the Shopper’s Purchase Journey,” and conducted by independent market research firm Grail Research, was to understand the role that sales associates play in the consumer shopping journey. The consumer sample included 600 qualified shoppers that made purchases of $100 or higher in the last 3 months. The sales associate sample included 100 employees from companies spanning five retail segments: home improvement, electronics and consumer goods, department stores, fashion retail, and specialty retail.

Key findings from the survey include:

• Shoppers who interact with a sales associate are 43 percent more likely to purchase a product, and their transactions have 81 percent more value, compared to those who don’t interact with an associate. In addition, they are 12 percent more likely to revisit the store.
• Conversely, shoppers are less likely to make a purchase if they are not reached out to proactively by a sales associate. Forty percent of shoppers are unable to locate a store associate when they need help in a typical shopping trip.
• Ninety one percent of sales associates strongly agree that positive interactions with shoppers result in higher conversions, yet 94 percent feel this requires more advanced technology tools and training that they currently don’t have access to.

The survey identified a gap that exists in terms of assistance provided in the store. Associates would like to have access to technologies that help identify shoppers in need of assistance, improving their productivity. However, few brands have capitalized on this need.

Companies should identify an automated technology platform that has the ability to:

·         Notify sales associates to locate and target the right shopper once they have entered the store

·         Share recommendations on additional products based on product category

·         Provide timely training on new products and features

METRO Cash & Carry Opens its 21th Outlet in India; Fifth in Bengaluru to Strengthen Retail Presence

On the precipice of its 13th anniversary, the German major METRO Cash and Carry has opened its 21th outlet in India and its 5th in Bengaluru, where it began its journey in the country, the company has also announced plans to touch 50 stores by 2020. 

The new outlet in Whitefield boasts of superior product assortment and pricing relevant to the catchment area. The layout of the store has been redesigned to offer products of a similar category together, like detergents have been placed after apparel and cleaning agents have been placed alongside cleaning appliances. This will be the format for all stores, now onwards," said Arvind Mediratta, Managing Director, METRO Cash and Carry India.

The company has outlets in 13 cities across nine states. "We will strengthen our presence in those markets where we are present. In fact, Bengaluru itself has the potential to contain a total of 8-10 stores. We want to leverage such potential and improve market size," he said.

At an average investment of Rs 50 crore per store, the company takes pride in having fully researched its market. "We put in sufficient efforts in studying the markets we enter.

Moreover, having sorted the supply chain and back-end in such markets, we would like to exploit their full potential," he said, adding, "In most markets, we have a single store.

Before we venture out, we want to fortify these markets." Within the newly launched format, the company has also simplified pricing so as to communicate it better. For prices above Rs 50, the company has deleted decimal pricing altogether, and has retained single place after decimals for prices below Rs 50. 

New Engine Production Plant Comes Up in Bengaluru for Manufacture of Toyota’s Innova Crysta Diesel Engines

Toyota Industries Engine India (TIEI), a joint venture between Kirloskar Systems Ltd. (KSL) and Toyota Industries Corporation - Japan (TICO), in India, has announced the inauguration of a new engine production plant at Jigani Industrial Area, Bengaluru. The new plant will manufacture powerful and high performance Global Diesel (GD) Engine featuring Economy with Superior Thermal Efficiency Combustion (ESTEC) technology, which contributes to enhanced fuel efficiency. 

Spread across 22 acres with an investment of Rs. 1,100 crore, the engine manufacturing plant operates with a production capacity of 108,000 units/year and manufactures 1GD-FTV 2.8 litre and 2GD-FTV – 2.4 litre engines in compliance with BS 4 / Euro 4 emission standards with an additional provision to upgrade to BS 5 and 6 / Euro 5 and 6 with minimum investment and lead time in the future. Toyota Industries Engine India (TIEI) plant, the new state-of-the-art facility is the first GD Engine Plant of Toyota in India and third globally, after Japan and Thailand.

The new plant was inaugurated by the Chief Guests  Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister of Karnataka, Government of Karnataka, Anant G Geete, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India, and graced by Guests of Honor  R.V Deshpande, Minister for Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development, Government of Karnataka, D.K. Shivakumar, Minister for Energy, Government of Karnataka, T.B. Jayachandra, Minister for Law and Parliamentary affairs, Government of Karnataka in the august presence of Toshiyuki Mizushima, Senior Managing Officer, Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan, Akira Onishi, President, Toyota Industries Corporation, Japan, Taku Yamamoto, Chairman, Toyota Industries Engine India, Kiyotsugu Kurimoto, Managing Director, Toyota Industries Engine India, Vikram S Kirloskar, Vice Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Director, Toyota Industries Engine India. T R Parasuraman, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Industries Engine India, A. Tachibana, Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. and Shekar Viswananthan, Vice Chairman and Whole-time Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd.

Commenting on the occasion, Siddaramaiah, Honorable Chief Minister of Karnataka, Government of Karnataka, said “I am very much delighted to be a part of the Engine Plant Opening Ceremony of Toyota Industries Engine India. Toyota’s two decades presence in Karnataka has made it a household name. All Toyota employees are Karnataka’s Brand Ambassadors and we are proud of their achievements. We want Toyota to continue and make future investments in the state of Karnataka.”

Anant G Geete, who graced the event said “The Indian automobile industry is one of the biggest contributors to India’s GDP. The Government of India is equally concerned about increasing pollution. In this regard we will take a comprehensive view about the current diesel ban on vehicles above 2000cc, both on the development and environment front along with its impact on the investment climate.”

T R Parasuraman, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Industries Engine India Pvt. Ltd., who was present at the ceremony, said "TIEI aims to become India's no. 1 engine manufacturing plant by contributing to the country’s manufacturing mandate. With the new state-of-art engine plant, we at TIEI remain committed to the growth of the country’s economy. We are strongly focused towards the “Make in India’ initiative of Government of India and believe that this new engine project will add to achieve global manufacturing standards in the country. This project has been implemented with big support from Government of Karnataka. We, TIEI, are proud to be in Karnataka.”

Commenting on the new initiative  Vikram S Kirloskar, Vice Chairman – Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd and Director, Toyota Industries Engine India Pvt. Ltd said “Today is indeed a proud day for all of us at Toyota Industries Engine India, as we unveil our first ever Diesel engine plant here at Bengaluru. The introduction of GD series engines not only equips superior technology but also meet the new fuel efficiency policies mandate in the country. We realize diesel engine technology will remain an integral part of every automaker with strict fuel efficiency norms being implemented in India, therefore this engine project will strengthen our diesel business in the country marking Toyota’s first diesel manufacturing plant in India.”

“We hope to grow together with the local community and ramp up the process of manufacturing cars in India with readily available diesel engines made from our new Bengaluru plant”, he further added.

The 2.4 litre and 2.8 litre engines equip Manual Transmission and Automatic Transmission of Innova Crysta respectively. The 2.4-litre 2GD-FTV engine is 47% more powerful and 13% more fuel efficient. And the 2.8-litre 1GD-FTV engine is 71% more powerful and 7% more fuel efficient, in comparison to the earlier used 2KD engine.

The Indian Automotive Market is the fifth largest in the world and 40% of the cars sold are diesel vehicles. The new diesel plant in Bengaluru will further boost the employment opportunities in Karnataka, generating need for skilled manpower in the industry. This will create a convivial environment for foreign investors to further invest in the State.