Strong Defence & Aerospace Expansion Sees 12% Growth for Aero Sekur

Aero Sekur SpA  (www.aerosekur.com), one of the biggest European producers of fabrics and rubber technology for the aerospace and defence sectors, reported a 12% increase in turnover in 2015, driven by a major order for maintenance equipment for the F-35 combat aircraft.

The engineering firm is a global leader in fabric manufacturing for the worlds of defence, space and aviation and it is involved in some of the biggest international projects in these sectors, such as the F-35 and Eurofighter aircraft and the ExoMars mission which aims to search for life on the planet Mars.

Its overall sales totalled 36.6 million euros in 2015, up 12% on the year. Turnover reached 18.5 million euros in the Airborne division, 15 million euros in Defence and 3.1 million euros in the Space division.

“The 2015 figures show that investments in research and development were critical for the growth plan,” said Aero Sekur Chief Executive Marco Borghesi. “The sales increase is driven mainly by the defence sector, with the acquisition of an important order to produce maintenance equipment for the F-35. Government cuts to defence spending did not affect equipment for personal defence, such as protective suits, gas masks and ballistic jackets. The company also launched a strong internationalisation drive, increasing its client portfolio on the global scale,” he said.

The company is controlled by Aero Sekur LTD, an English holding company owned by the Tosca Penta fund (54%) and institutional and private investors
Its EBITDA in 2015 was 3.4 million euros, equal to about 9% of revenues. The slight decline compared to 2014 (-0.6%) was due to new production launches, which are expected to show a positive impact on margins from 2016.

The company has embarked on a research and development plan, investing more than 12 million euros in the last five years, which has allowed it to consolidate its presence in the international market. Aero Sekur is also involved in some of the biggest aerospace and defence projects financed by national and international institutions, in collaboration with the main players in the sectors.

Its strong results have attracted the support of the Agency for the Promotion of European Research, which has described Aero Sekur as a “virtuous example”, being the only small or medium sized aerospace company to have won three international contests in the first year of Horizon 2020, the European Commission programme which finances projects for research and innovation up to 2020.

Easy Road Trips with New Android Google Maps with Multi-Stop Directions; Shortly Also On iOS Platform

If you are planning a road trip soon, update Google Maps on your smartphone now. With the latest update on Google Maps on Android (coming soon to iOS), you can now plan road trip with multi-stop directions.

If you are planning a road trip soon, update Google Maps on your smartphone now. With the latest update on Google Maps on Android (coming soon to iOS), you can now plan road trip with multi-stop directions. Just open the app, enter a destination, tap the corner menu and then click “Add stop”.

To rearrange the order of your stops, tap and hold the three dot menu to the left of “Add stop” and drag it to the position you want.

“No matter where your travel plans take you this monsoon season and beyond, the new Google Maps features will get you there and help keep track of all the memories you make along the way,” said Sanket Gupta, Product Manager, Google Maps, in a statement.

The users can also add as many stops as like. Once you are done, tap “Finished” and your multi-stop routing is complete. One can even search for petrol pumps, ATMs or restaurants in the map.

Google Maps users on Android can also preserve their travel memories with “Your Timeline”.

Agencies

Hilton Worldwide Among ‘India’s Best Companies to Work For 2016’ by Economic Times Survey

Hilton Worldwide has been recognised among ‘India’s Best Companies to Work For 2016’ in the most prestigious workplaces list released by The Economic Times and Great Place to Work Institute.  Hilton Worldwide, a leading global hospitality company, currently operates 15 hotels and resorts under five brands and across 11 cities in India. The brands that have a presence in the country include the luxury ‘Conrad Hotels & Resorts’, the upscale ‘Hilton Hotels & Resorts’ and ‘DoubleTree by Hilton’ and the mid-market ‘Hilton Garden Inn’ and ‘Hampton by Hilton’.    

Hilton Worldwide has been ranked 25^th in what is acknowledged as the country’s largest and most respected study of workplace excellence and people management practices.  This year, nearly 800 organisations across industries applied to be assessed and over 155,119 employees were surveyed to identify the top 100 companies to work for in India.

Great Place To Work® Institute's assessment includes an employee survey that measures the levels of Trust, Pride and Camaraderie prevalent in an organisation and an in-depth questionnaire seeking to understand the people practices, philosophy and values of an organisation. 

"Our Team Members are the heart of our business. It is what Team Members do for our guests, our owners, our communities and each other that makes our company great." said Andre A Gomez, Head of Operations, Hilton Worldwide – India. “We are dedicated to offering our Team Members a great environment, great careers and great rewards.”

Based on over 25 years of research, Great Place to Work Institute defines a great workplace as one where employees trust the people they work for, have pride in the work they do and enjoy the company of people they work with.

Hilton Worldwide listens closely to its Team Members to help create the benefits and programmes that matter most to them. Examples include exciting global career opportunities, dynamic development and recognition programmes, innovative work environment, industry-leading benefits like worldwide travel perks and meaningful work with several opportunities to make a difference with the company’s corporate responsibility programmes. 

Tejinder Kalra Appointed as the Chief Operating Officer of Indus Towers

Indus Towers, the country’s largest telecom tower company, announced the appointment of Tejinder Kalra as the Chief Operating Officer, as on July 1, 2016. With over 26 years of experience in the telecom and telecom services industry, Tejinder holds an extensive experience in strategy development, implementation and service delivery across geographies.

Speaking on the occasion, Bimal Dayal, Chief Executive Officer, Indus Towers said, “In line with Indus’ pursuit of building a strong leadership team for the future, I would like to announce appointment of Tejinder Kalra. His passion, strategic clarity and disciplined execution will help ensure that Indus Towers’ continues to deliver our best to our customers.”

Tejinder joins Indus Towers from Nokia, where he was the Global Head for Bharti Business in his most recent role. He has worked with Nokia for over 13 years, and has been a pivotal part of their growth story. In his last role, he managed the end to end PnL ownership for Bharti Telecom business globally. He was also the Sub-Region Head for Central, East and Western Africa in an earlier role where he helped set-up Nokia’s Airtel operations in Africa.

Talking about his move, Tejinder Kalra, Chief Operating Officer, Indus Towers said, “I am honored to take up this role, and feel enthusiastic about the opportunities that lie ahead. I look forward to working closely with the entire Indus Towers team as we embark on this exciting journey.”

Tejinder has been associated with Reliance Infocomm, Satyam Infoway, Sprint RPG India amongst other organizations in the past. He has done his engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology and Executive Diploma in International Business from IIFT.

Bentley Systems & Shell Sign Global Framework Agreement

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, a leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing infrastructure has announced a new Global Framework Agreement with Shell. The agreement serves to improve Shell’s capital project construction execution through automated 4D/5D construction management solutions provided by Bentley as a managed service. The solution, based on Bentley’s ProjectWise ConstructSim, will be deployed as part of Shell’s ProjectVantage program. This innovative offering, which simplifies work packaging for engineering, construction, and installation, adheres to the Construction Industry Institute’s (CII’s) Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) methodology.

The Global Framework Agreement with Bentley underlies Shell’s ProjectVantage program, a multi-vendor integrated data-centric approach to capital project delivery. This industry-leading program is aimed at delivering safer and better projects faster by:

·         improving cross-discipline and supplier collaboration;

·         controlling data throughout the capital project lifecycle; and

·         applying standards and enabling replication.

Shell selected ProjectWise ConstructSim as the foundation of its construction management solution to:

·         enhance its ability to visually plan and execute work safely, avoiding premature mobilization and downtime and removing constraints that can impact safety, logistics, materials, labor availability, permits, and documentation;

·         ensure more effective “engineering readiness” through the application of advanced work packaging to improve constructability; and

·         improve field productivity, which optimizes schedule reliability, maximizes time on tools, increases safety, and mitigates risk, resulting in substantial cost savings.

Greg Bentley, Bentley Systems CEO and executive sponsor of the company’s Shell relationship, said, “Shell deserves credit for leading the energy industry to find innovative ways to continue to improve the affordability of capital projects, through the efficiency and predictability achievable through CII’s Advanced Work Packaging playbook. By championing AWP through ProjectVantage for its own projects, Shell is also helping their EPCs toward project delivery performance breakthroughs—leveraging software technologies and cloud services, for the benefit of every project. Shell’s experience to date in applying 4D and 5D initiatives on major projects corroborates both CII’s findings about productivity gains attainable through AWP, as well as ProjectWise ConstructSim’s contribution.”

Martin Swaine, Shell 4D/5D programme manager, said, “Shell has been pleased with the trend of benefits seen during our projects’ increasing use of ProjectWise ConstructSim. Together with Bentley, we look to build on these improvements with our supply chain to collectively deliver safer and better projects.”

STEMI-India Creates Heart Attack Management System In Karnataka; Unveil ECG Monitoring & Data Reader Device

In India about 25 per cent of the deaths happen due to heart attack and this number is only increasing each year. After creating Heart Attack Management System in Tamil Nadu and Telangana, STEMI India, a not for profit organization plans to set up four zones in Karnataka to create heart attack management drive especially in the rural areas in this state. These are namely, Bangalore, Mysore, Gulbarga and Mangalore zones to begin and later add more in the coming years. Dr Manjunath, Director, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology says, “After a successful management programme in TN and Telangana, the programme is called STEMI India Model and has been validated and is considered as the heart attack management programme ideal for all low and middle income countries like India. The meeting being held here will discuss and plan the launch of this programme in Karnataka.” Dr. Thomas Alexander, Director of STEMI INDIA, said that Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the commonest non-infectious disease prevalent in India. He explained that Indians have the highest mortality and morbidity rates from CAD as compared to any other ethnic group. Over the last three decades, the prevalence of CAD has increased by 300%; from 2% to 6% in rural India and from 4% to 12% in urban India. It is now projected that the number of Indians with CAD is above 60 million of which 23 million is below the age of 40 years and 10 million younger than 30 years. CAD is projected to claim 2.9 million lives annually, of which almost 1 million will be younger than 40 years of age, he added, quoting figures from the WHO (World Health Organization). Coronary heart disease is common non-infectious disease in India reporting the highest mortality and morbidity rates. Over the last three decades, CAD prevalence increased by 300 per cent from 2 percent to 6 percent in rural India and from 4 o 12 per cent in urban India. Its now estimated that number of Indian with CAD is 60 million of which 23 million is below the age of 40 years and 10 million younger than 30 years. WHO reports that CAD is projected to claim 29 million lives annually of which one million is under 40 years. The objective of this workshops to stall fatality. Going by the incidence of heart attacks which can be controlled with early access to care and help patients to remain productive post the condition, has led STEMI- India to ensure all patients under the BPL (below the poverty line) have quick treatment options, said the course directors of STEMI India. Workshop from June 2-3, 2016 STEMI India is also organising a two-day workshop on management of ST elevation of myocardial infraction on July 2 and 3, 2016 at Hotel Shangri-La, Bengaluru. Around 1,000 delegates including from Africa and Egypt among others in the developing world are expected to participate in the event. The delegates will comprise doctors, nurses and technicians. They will have a first-hand exposure on how to reduce fatality, survive with good heart function and ensure rural and semi-urban doctors are equipped to handle these cases in a time-bound manner. The day and half programme provides a comprehensive review and training to the medical team involved in the processes and procedures in the care of a heart attack patient from the emergency room physician to the clinical cardiologist involved in thrombolysis to the cardiac catherisation lab team in the Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) capable hospitals. The course directors of STEMI-India are Dr. Thomas Alexander, Head of Division, Cardiology, Kovai Medical Center and Hospital Coimbatore, Dr. Ajit S Mullasari, Director of Cardiology,The Madras Medical Mission Chennai, Dr. C N Manjunath, Professor and Head of Cardiology, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, Bengaluru, Dr. P Ranganath Nayak, Medical Director and Senior Interventional Cardiologist, Vikram Hospital Bengaluru Private Limited, Bengaluru, Dr. S S Iyengar ,Academic Head, Department of Cardiology, Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru STEMI India Device STEMI-India has unveiled a guided medical device which is an ECG, monitoring and data reader designed and developed indigenously by the Mumbai-based Maestros Electronics and Telecommunication Systems which is compact and easy-to-operate device at any remote location will be on display. It will demonstrate the quick and speedy methods to diagnose and administer the first line of blood clot dissolve drugs to stabiles the patient before he is shifted for further treatment. The device is manufactured at the Goa unit.

E-commerce Firms to Invest $8 billion in Infrastructure, Logistics in India: Assocham-PwC Study

With the growing popularity of online shopping in India, the e-commerce companies are expected to invest close to $6-8 billion in logistics, infrastructure and warehousing in the next few years, an Assocham-PwC study said.

The e-commerce market in India is expected to touch $80 billion by 2020.

At present, there is a very low level of air cargo penetration and only a few airports are equipped to handle large volumes of express delivery parcels.

As e-commerce gathers momentum and moves to the tier-II and tier-III cities, there will be increasing demand of expanding air cargo connectivity to smaller towns. The industry would invest about $8 billion by 2025, the study noted.

"Innovations are very important in this sector, as the demand is always for more reach and faster shipping at lower costs. The companies will need to invest in automation, while utilizing existing resources well," said D.S. Rawat, Secretary General, Assocham.

The overall e-commerce industry, valued at $25 billion has been growing at a compounded annual growth rate of about 35-40 per cent each year, the study said, adding that it is expected to cross the $100 billion mark in five years.

"India is successful in becoming the largest e-commerce market in the world. The rapid transformation in logistics, innovation, consumerism and productivity prove to be an interesting case study for other emerging economies," Rawat added.