Gionee’s Big Daddy of Smartphones - A1 Plus with Dual Rear Camera, Fast Charging and 2 Yrs Extended Warranty

Riding on the record breaking success of its flagship model A1, Gionee India today announced the launch of A1 Plus, furthering its commitment to provide an unmatched photography and battery experience. Equipped with best in class features , A1 Plus  has professional quality 13MP+5MP rear dual camera and 20 MP front camera. Powerful in performance, A1 Plus has a 4550mAh battery and Helio P25 Octa-core processor with 4GB RAM, 64 GB ROM and 256 GB expandable memory. A1 Plus will be available across India in retail stores at an attractive price of Rs 26,999.

The new model demonstrates superior features like great dual rear camera for premium quality photography experience alongside long-lasting battery life with ultrafast charge and cutting edge MediaTek Helio P25 processor. Dual rear camera allows one to capture the details and collect the depth of field information, enabling users to take vibrant and lively pictures even in low-light conditions. From wide-angle shots to artsy bokeh effects, Gionee A1 plus is all geared to raise the standard of smartphone photography to the next level with its dual rear camera.

A1 Plus also comes with a premium performing chip from the MediaTek Helio family, Helio P25, which combines the power of 16nm Octa-core processing with a superior ISP which is ideal for dual camera devices. Designed for Android smartphones that aim to differentiate through exceptional camera features and overall advanced image quality. By adopting a 16nm FinFET+ process node, MediaTek Helio P25 offers an Octa-core Cortex-A53 processor clocked at up to 2.6GHz that delivers more power while using less energy than competing solutions.

The MediaTek platform, coupled with 4 GB RAM + 64GB ROM, provides an enhanced user experience at a lower power consumption rate.

Commenting on the launch, Alok Shrivastava, Director – Business Intelligence and Planning, Gionee India said, “The A Series is rooted to the growing demand of high quality smartphone photography experience. Keeping up with the rising trend the A1 Plus exhibits excellent camera quality with flawless dual rear camera and exquisite design tradition that will earn accolades for Gionee flagship series. We are confident that our attention to detail with impressive specs, powerful battery and advanced features will deliver the best user experience possible.”

Kuldeep Malik (Country Head, Corporate Sales International), MediaTek while talking about the collaboration said, “We are extremely proud to associate with Gionee smartphones for their A series. The A1 Plus is driven by Helio P25 processor combined with the power of 16nm Octa-core processing having a superior ISP built with special focus on dual camera devices. The aim is to differentiate the product through its exceptional camera features providing premium image quality.

The cutting-edge technology will offer improved performance with longer battery life and we look forward to strengthen our relationship with the fastest growing smartphone manufacturer with the upcoming launches.”

Super Selfie

A1 Plus continues to focus on exceptional selfie performance, featuring a 20MP front camera along with a customized selfie flash to spread light onto faces more evenly and softly. The soft lighting effect is able to enhance facial complexions, giving users a natural glow and rosiness. Gionee’s independent facial enhancement algorithm automatically detects a user’s face and applies custom beauty settings. Powered by 4-cell technology, the front camera captures more light than before resulting clearer and more beautiful selfies

The other key features which have been developed to guarantee a high-quality selfie, for example, Gionee’s facial recognition system and advanced algorithms have gone into the bokeh-selfie mode, which allows users to blur backgrounds with an artistic bokeh while still allowing their faces to stand out. Users can enjoy studio-quality depth and background bokeh effects.

Super Battery

The A1 Plus offers longer battery life and seamless user experience thanks to an integrated software and hardware solution. Powered by a 4550 mAh battery, users can enjoy uninterrupted usage for up to two days regardless of web browsing, reading or even consuming video content. In addition to longer battery life, GioneeA1 Plus also features Ultrafast charging capability which gives users 2-hour talk time in just 300 seconds of faster, safer and worry-free charging.

Super Experience

The seamless interplay between hardware and software allows GioneeA1 Plus to offer an optimized smartphone experience. The A1 Plus runs on a MTK Helio P25 process or that gives better performance and less power consumption. Powered by a 4GB RAM, The A1 enables smooth multitasking and easy operation, while 64GB internal storage (Expandable up to 256GB) provide ample storage space.

Like the A1, the A1 Plus is also equipped with the fastest fingerprint sensor, unlocking the phone in just 0.2 seconds, for top-notch safety. For the humid Indian conditions, the sensor unlocks the device even with moist fingers. The finger print sensor also activates ‘Edgebar’ allowing users a hub for quicker access to their favorite apps.

A1 Plus offers a full HD display that measures a fantastic six inches across, diagonally—allowing users to see much more of what they want, delivering a truly immersive super experience. It boasts of a host of amazing features such as Split Screen, 2.5D +Gorilla Glass 3, Maxx Audio VOLTE and Virus detection enabled amongst other key features.

Price & Availability

The phone will be available for sale across India retail stores from July 26 at a price of Rs 26,999.

CSS Corp Wins NASSCOM’s Digital Skills Award for 2017

CSS Corp, a global leader in providing IT Services and Technology Support solutions, has won NASSCOM’s prestigious Digital Skills Award for 2017. CSS Corp’s Digital Career Progression Framework, “Reimagine”, was chosen for its unique and innovative approach to employee up-skilling and cross-skilling in new age digital technologies. The award was presented at NASSCOM’s flagship HR Summit, which was held in Chennai last week.

The “Reimagine” framework has been specifically built to fast-track employee re-skilling initiatives within the organization, in niche digital technologies including Robotic Process Automation (RPA), AI, Analytics, Cloud, DevOps and IoT. Additionally, the framework enables collaborative learning and greater personalization through Virtual University, MOOCs, online portals and learning communities. Reimagine promotes democratization of learning and fosters a culture of innovation within the organization. 

The results of Reimagine have been encouraging so far. It and has brought in significant increases in critical business aspects, including resource utilization, team productivity, employee learning and development, and increase in revenue per employee. The framework has also created more career and growth opportunities, while resulting in an overall drop in attrition.

CSS Corp’s Reimagine framework is synchronized with Digital Innovation Labs that provide employees access and ample opportunities to build customer engagement solutions like Yodaa, CSS Corp’s recent AI platform. The various training programs and certifications that are offered on the latest technologies enable employees to enhance their digital dexterity, to thrive in today’s disruptive marketplace.

Speaking on the occasion, R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, said, “Workforce landscape in India has evolved significantly over the last decade and the key to success lies in identifying the right talent and then train them to enhance their skills and employability and therefore enhance industry’s competitiveness. I congratulate CSS Corp for their excellent work in this area. We are sure that the entire industry will devise ways and means to scale up the reskilling efforts.”

Commenting on the recognition, Manish Tandon, CEO of CSS Corp said, “We are delighted to be recognized by NASSCOM for our digital up-skilling initiatives. This will enable us to offer the best of career and growth opportunities to our employees, while building a nimble and agile organization. We are reorienting our service lines with new and disruptive offerings, and the Reimagine framework is one such step toward this process of change, adoption and growth. We are confident that our employees will tap into these opportunities to learn and adapt, and be the change agents who will deliver transformational business results in today’s rapidly evolving technology environment.”

Speaking on the occasion, David Raj, EVP & Chief HR Officer, CSS Corp said, “We are honored by this recognition by NASSCOM. It is a strong testimony to the underlying philosophy of CSS Corp’s adaptability, and our commitment towards building a close-knit, vibrant, and technologically advanced organization. The Reimagine career progression framework has been designed to provide the right guidance, opportunities and encouragement to our employees to advance their careers.”

Air India SATS Unveils ‘AISATS Cargo’ App for Real-Time Cargo Tracking at KIA, Bengaluru

Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt. Ltd. (AISATS), India’s premier airport services company has launched a mobile app ‘AISATS Cargo’ to facilitate the cargo tracking process at AISATS Air Freight Terminal and at AISATS COOLPORT, located at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), Bengaluru.

P. Anjani Kumar - IRS, Commissioner of Customs-Airport & ACC, Bengaluru along with M R Reddy & Bipin Kumar Upadhyaya, Joint Commissioners of Customs and Harshvardhan Umre, Additional Commissioner of Customs launched the app at AISATS Airfreight Terminal at BLR. Stakeholders from Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL), Cargo Trade Associations (CTA) and partner airlines were also present at the occasion. AISATS is the first and the only air cargo operator at Bengaluru to develop this free on-the-go app to provide its customers with comprehensive cargo-tracking solutions.

This user-friendly app, picks up cargo movement data from COSYS and provides real-time information on flight schedules, Air Way Bill (AWB) shipment tracking and e-Delivery Order (e-DO) status. The user can input the AWB number and obtain the current status of a shipment such as date of uplift/arrival, number of pieces, weight as well as approval status of the delivery order through its e-DO feature. The ‘AISATS Cargo’ app will increase efficiency of the supply chain by relaying relevant information of the cargo to key stakeholders.

Speaking on the launch of the app, Mike Chew, CEO, AISATS said, “AISATS has always been at the forefront of digitization and is quick to adopt information technology to introduce innovative solutions in the air cargo industry. The AISATS Cargo app will aid in the ease of doing business by enabling seamless availability of data at any given time. This will ensure maximum benefit and convenience to our stakeholders.”

AISATS handled a total of 1, 42, 033 tons of cargo in the FY 16-17 at Kempegowda International Airport.

LIC Mutual Fund Mandates Trend Micro to Secure its Endpoints, Network and Data Centres

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, provided a complete suite of solutions securing endpoints, network and data centres for LIC Mutual Fund, one of India’s prominent asset management and financial product advisor. This comes at the back of the recent announcement of Trend Micro securing SBI’s 2.75 Lakh endpoints across 26,000 branches. Trend Micro implemented a ‘Connected Threat Defense and Response Strategy’, that was efficient enough to detect and block threats across all channels.

LIC Mutual Fund deployed Trend Micro solutions which provided visibility into potential security threats and increased protection against zero-day vulnerabilities. It also improved operational efficiency by reducing unscheduled patching events, customer code fixes, and enhanced productivity due to reduced unscheduled downtime. Deployed as a single, multifunction agent across all environments in the data centres, Trend Micro solutions addressed resource contention issues and helped to simplify security operations. LIC Mutual Fund also benefits from a centralized management solution that provides a single, integrated interface to manage, monitor, and report across multiple layers of security.

Over the past few years, cyber criminals are employing more sophisticated technology, which has led to a drastic change in the global cybercrime landscape. With demonetization, cashless economy and smart city campaigns, India has emerged as a focus market for cyber criminals across the globe. In line with this, despite having a sound IT infrastructure, LIC Mutual Fund decided to take preventive measures and approached Trend Micro. Subsequently, Trend Micro has offered powerful solutions to LIC Mutual Fund, which enables threat protection and data security for users.

“For LIC Mutual Fund, we ensured that servers and endpoints were not vulnerable and defended against zero-day threats, breaches, and business disruptions by adapting a virtual patching mechanism. We also deployed a strong network defense strategy that gave 360-degree visibility and counter measure in place to supplement the traditional security they used. The solutions offered by us resulted in improved operational security, operational efficiency, ease of security management and integration and automation,” said Nilesh Jain, Country Manager - (India and SAARC), Trend Micro.

“It is important that the security solution integrate seamlessly with the existing established IT infrastructure. Therefore, we essentially made sure to integrate company’s IT ecosystem to deliver cutting-edge protection without impacting on system performance,” he added.

“With ever-growing security risks and a complex IT environment, it was very important to find a flexible, customizable, easy-to-manage solution suitable for our business. Partnering with Trend Micro led to a harmonious collaboration that helped us combat the challenges of securing and protecting our data and network from potential security risks and cyber threats,” said Prashant Thakkar, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Strategy, LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Limited.

Genpact Social Impact Fellowship 1.0 Impacts Lives of 70,000 Indian Students

Genpact, a global professional services firm focused on delivering digital transformation for clients, today announced the graduation of the first batch of the Genpact Social Impact Fellowship (GSIF) program. The year-long fellowship program in partnership with EdelGive Foundation, the philanthropic division of Edelweiss Group, deploys process excellence experts to generate social impact. In the first year, six fellows chosen among hundreds of applicants have been engaged in high-impact projects to create systemic change in the social sector.

Leveraging EdelGive Foundation’s experience in the social sector, the six GSIF fellows have collaborated with three leading non-profit organizations working in the area of education in India. Using Genpact’s core Lean Six Sigma expertise for designing and transforming processes, they significantly improved and eliminated redundant processes. Leading to better collaboration and compliance, the enhanced processes will transform the lives of more than 70,000 students in India.

“There has always been a need for additional capability building in the non-profit sector. Companies must focus on leveraging their skillsets to develop sustainable and scalable social impact. The Genpact Social Impact Fellowship is a unique bridge between the social and corporate sectors that allows our fellows to use Genpact’s deep process expertise to drive impact in the social sector. It’s heartening to see that the Fellows were able to leverage best practices from the social sector and Genpact to focus on the end goal – generating impact for the children,” said Sasha Sanyal, SVP and Business Leader, Insurance, Diversity and CSR.

Partnering with Teach For India (TFI), Anuj Chopra and Shreya Khedia have created a playbook of Common Minimum Practices (CMPs) for TFI program managers that will help 10,000 students get 100 more learning hours in a year. In a unique project with Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF), Genpact employees Tulsi Sahu and Seban Babu reengineered processes for the delivery of scholarships, mid-day meals, and textbooks to help 55,000 students receive their books and scholarships on time. Standardizing Udayan Care’s existing process framework allowed Pankaj Bhatia and Samarendra Patra to create a playbook for their employees so that the non-profit can double its impact by 2020 and touch the lives of 9,000 underprivileged girls.

“Combining the philanthropic expertise of EdelGive with Genpact’s Lean Six Sigma proficiency, the Genpact Social Impact Fellowship goes beyond traditional funding. The first edition of GSIF has yielded wonderful results and we hope to continue this journey well into the second year,” said Naghma Mulla, COO, EdelGive Foundation.

The second batch of the fellowship is being launched with twice as many of fellows as well as non-profits. The open fellowship program invites applications from interested people from all backgrounds with a demonstrated passion for social impact. Genpact aims to develop GSIF into a successful, scalable program that can serve as a model for many other organizations wanting to make a lasting difference in the social sector.

TiE Mumbai’s SmashUp 7.0 Brings Together Successful Entrepreneurs

SmashUp, one of the flagship events of TiE Mumbai was held at ISDI ACE, Lower Parel over the weekend. In the last 7 years, SmashUp has brought together new and aspiring entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and boost peer learning from successful entrepreneurs. SmashUp is a platform where ideas mature into action plans inspired by stories of successful as well as not so successful strategies.

The main highlight of the conference was Smasher Award – a Spot funding platform created by TiE Charter Members, wherein six shortlisted startups pitched for a grand prize of $40K (~ Rs 25 Lakhs). Each StartUp was given 15 mins with the investors (5 mins to pitch, 5 mins Q&A and 5 mins to discuss the details of funding). This year, the Smasher Award was bagged by a startup called IPHawk. It was funded by Sanjay Mehta, Dewang Nerella and other TiE Angels. The group of angel investors will become mentors and open doors for the StartUp rather than just passive investors.

Founders of Purple Squirrel, TinyOwl – Saurabh Goyal, Taskbob – Assem Khare, Zimmber – Anubhav Goel participated in a session called ‘StartUp Tales: Starting the 2nd Innings’ where they narrated their struggles, challenges in starting a venture, guide to raising the first million, surviving the first year after fund raising and finally the process of shutting down. Situations related to investors, staff relations and reasons for calling it quits which have never been spoken in open forums were discussed by these daredevil founders.

Commenting on the grand success of SmashUp 7.0, Anand Desai, President, TiE Mumbai said “Over the years SmashUp has established itself as a platform where entrepreneurs get access to and direction from those who have walked the path. This year too, SmashUp is successful in meeting expectations of the startup ecosystem. TiE Mumbai’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship and we will continue to give new entrepreneurs access to the startup ecosystem.”

Ridesharing App Uber India Appoints Sanjay Gupta as Head of Marketing

Uber, the ridesharing app that is redefining urban mobility across the world, recently appointed Sanjay Gupta as the Head of Marketing for Uber India. With over 15 years of experience in brand and consulting, Sanjay will focus on further strengthening brand Uber in India.

On his appointment as the Head of Marketing, Uber India, Sanjay Gupta said, “I’m excited to join Uber at such an opportune time. Uber is redefining urban mobility and has created a unique experience for riders and driver partners across the country. I’m looking forward to working with the super-talented team at Uber and take it to its next phase of growth in India.”

Prior to joining Uber, Sanjay was the Chief Marketing Officer at Urban Ladder. During his 10-year stint with Marico, he led the charter for Saffola’s journey from a single category niche brand to a food brand strengthening its association with preventive heart care.

One of the sharpest marketing minds in the country, Sanjay was recognised as India’s ‘Top 40 Under 40 Hottest Business Leaders’ in 2015. Several marketing campaigns created by him have also won recognition at EMVIE and Effie, leading advertising and media awards in the industry. His expertise lie in delivering growth, evangelizing strategic brand shifts and building power brands. Sanjay is passionate about leading the growth, innovation and people agenda.